The British government has attacked the Israel’s decision to approve 22 new settlements in the West Bank.
Hamish Falconer, the Middle East minister, called the move “a deliberate obstacle to Palestinian statehood”.
“The UK condemns these actions. Settlements are illegal under international law, further imperil the two state solution, and do not protect Israel”, he added in a post on social media.
According to a report by Ynet on Tuesday night, the Security Cabinet approved the move in secret around two weeks ago.
Some of the villages listed are existing outposts that had, thus far, been illegal under Israeli law, while others will be newly constructed.
Permission has been given to re-establish the Homesh and Sa-Nur, communities in the northern West Bank, which were forcibly evacuated and demolished during Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza.
Israeli campaign group Peace Now cautioned that some of the settlements are deep inside the West Bank, in areas that had been considered designated for a future Palestinian state in the event of a peace deal.
They claimed that the announcement would “dramatically reshape the West Bank and entrench the occupation even further”. Israel maintains that it does not occupy the West Bank and that it was legitimately re-taken during the 1967 Six Day War after being illegally annexed by Jordan in 1950.
Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich enthusiastically welcomed the announcement, describing it as “historic”.
“This is a great day for settlement and an important day for the State of Israel. Through hard work and tenacious leadership, we have succeeded in creating a profound strategic change, returning the State of Israel to a path of construction, Zionism, and vision. Settlement in the land of our ancestors is the protective wall of the State of Israel – today we have taken a huge step to strengthen it”, he wrote in a post on X.
“The next step - sovereignty”, he added, referring to his longstanding campaign for Israel to assert full governmental control over the territory.
Defence minister Israel Katz said in a statement that the measures were “also a strategic step to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel”.
Falconer’s condemnation is the latest in a growing number of disagreements between the London and Jerusalem.
Earlier this month, David Lammy, the foreign secretary, announced sanctions against three individuals and four firms linked to West Bank settlements.
One of those subject to the new measures was Daniella Weiss, a settler activist who appeared in a recent Louis Theroux documentary on the subject of the outposts.
All those named will be subject to “financial restrictions, travel bans and director disqualifications” relating to the UK.
“I have seen for myself the consequences of settler violence. The fear of its victims. The impunity of its perpetrators”, Lammy told MPs.
“The sanctioning of Daniella Weiss and others today demonstrates our determination to hold extremist settlers to account as Palestinian communities suffer violence and intimidation at the hands of extremist settlers.
He added: “The Israeli government has a responsibility to intervene and halt these aggressive actions. Their consistent failure to act is putting Palestinian communities and the two-state solution in peril.”
Lammy also announced the suspension of talks for a free trade agreement between the two countries in response to the latest Israeli offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“Civilians in Gaza facing starvation, homelessness, trauma, desperate for this war to end, now confront renewed bombardment, new displacement and new suffering”, he told the Commons.
Israel insists that sufficient aid has reached Gaza and that any food shortages are the result of Hamas theft.
