Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband<\/a> called the country\u2019s move to seek bidders to build 1,200 homes as part of the E1 settlement project<\/a> an \u201cunacceptable and destructive act\u201d. <\/p>\n He said the UK would not \u201cstand back and accept the destruction of the two-state solution<\/a>\u201d. <\/p>\n The Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Sa\u2019ar, hit back, accusing the UK of a \u201cpatronising tone\u201d and an \u201cabsurd\u201d stance. <\/p>\n Mr Miliband said the UK\u2019s opposition to the E1 settlement project<\/a>, which he said puts the two-state solution<\/a> at risk by separating the West Bank<\/a> from East Jerusalem, had been clear both in public and privately.<\/p>\n He said he had told the Israeli foreign minister \u201cthat the Israeli government must halt E1 plans immediately, retract the tender and stop all settlement expansion\u201d.<\/p>\n The Foreign Office also summoned Israel\u2019s charge d\u2019affaires, the country\u2019s top diplomat, to set out the UK\u2019s \u201cprofound objection to this move\u201d.<\/p>\n Mr Miliband said the UK remained committed to supporting a two-state solution \u201cas the only way to ensure long-term security and peace for both Palestinians and Israelis\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAll settlements damage that prospect and are a flagrant breach of international law,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n He added that in the coming weeks the UK would set out a series of measures \u201cto respond to Israeli government policies, protect the viability of the Palestinian state, target sanctions at those who participate in illegal settlement expansion and support a just and lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians\u201d.<\/p>\n Mr Sa\u2019ar accused Mr Miliband of being \u201centirely one-sided\u201d and said he rejected his statement and \u201cthe patronising tone of his words\u201d.<\/p>\n On X, formerly Twitter, he wrote: \u201cIt is absurd for Britain to lecture the Jewish people about where they may live in their historic tiny homeland, when the Jewish people\u2019s connection and right to this land is the most extensively documented of any people in human history.<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been no new decisions regarding development in E1. The decision was made on 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cThe tender process has been under way for several months, with certain tender documents published only in recent days.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the UK\u2019s policy of \u201cblaming only Israel while ignoring Palestinian extremism\u201d has contributed to antisemitic hatred and attacks against the British Jewish community.<\/p>\n Mr Sa\u2019ar added: \u201cThe UK government\u2019s decision to damage the relationship between our countries is deeply unfortunate. But Israel will not be a passive victim of this policy. Israel will defend its rights, its interests and its people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[13360,2673,12940,19974,26809,5084,37,22855,3345,25953,396,201,81,5485,2945,1218,20019,36016],"class_list":["post-257820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-color-image","tag-ed-miliband","tag-foreign-minister","tag-foreign-secretary","tag-headshot","tag-horizontal","tag-israel","tag-jose-manuel-albares","tag-madrid","tag-one-person","tag-people","tag-photography","tag-politics","tag-politics-and-government","tag-press-conference","tag-spain","tag-speech","tag-the-media"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117128402266242526","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2278401445...jpeg\")
A photograph taken from a land corridor that Israel plans to use for its controversial E1 settlement project, near the Arab town of al-Tur in Israel-annexed east Jerusalem, shows a horse and camels belonging to Bedouins standing on a hill overlooking the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim (background) on May 31, 2026 (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2288201878...jpeg\")
New foreign secretary Ed Miliband took up the job when Andy Burnham entered No 10 earlier this summer (Getty)<\/p>\n