April 5 (Reuters) - Israel has detained two British members of parliament and refused entry to the officials who were visiting as part of a parliamentary delegation, British Foreign Minister David Lammy said in a statement late on Saturday.
Sky News, citing a statement from the Israeli immigration ministry, says that the detained parliamentarians are Labour MPs Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed, who were rejected because they were suspected of plans to “document the activities of security forces and spread anti-Israel hatred.”
“I have made clear to my counterparts in the Israeli government that this is no way to treat British Parliamentarians, and we have been in contact with both MPs tonight to offer our support,” Lammy said.
That’s where I’m confused. Maybe it’s a language/cultural difference, but I consider all elected members of parliament government officials regardless of the importance of their role compared to cabinet ministers.
Under the Westminster system, Parliament is a separate entity to the Government, even though members of the government are nearly always members of the parliament. It goes back to the English Civil War and what’s run by Kings and what’s run by the electorate.