{"id":363424,"date":"2025-08-22T00:55:46","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T00:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/363424\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T00:55:46","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T00:55:46","slug":"britain-france-lead-21-countries-in-joint-condemnation-of-new-settlement-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/363424\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain, France lead 21 countries in joint condemnation of new settlement project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Britain and France were among 21 countries to sign a joint statement Thursday calling Israel\u2019s approval of a major settlement project in the West Bank \u201cunacceptable and a violation of international law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel approved the plans for the roughly 12-square-kilometer (five-square-mile) parcel of land known as E1 just east of Jerusalem on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe condemn this decision and call for its immediate reversal in the strongest terms,\u201d said the statement of foreign ministers, whose signatories also included Australia, Canada and Italy.<\/p>\n

Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden also signed the statement, as did the European Commission\u2019s foreign affairs chief.<\/p>\n

The statement noted that Israel\u2019s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the plan \u201cwill make a two-state solution impossible by dividing any Palestinian state and restricting Palestinian access to Jerusalem.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis brings no benefits to the Israeli people,\u201d the foreign ministers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, it risks undermining security and fuels further violence and instability, taking us further away from peace.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government of Israel still has an opportunity to stop the E1 plan going any further. We encourage them to urgently retract this plan,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s Foreign Secretary David Lammy, left, and his French counterpart, Jean-Noel Barrot, at the British Library in London ahead of a bilateral lunch meeting, July 9, 2025. (James Manning\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/p>\n

The plan seeks to build around 3,400 homes on the ultra-sensitive tract of land, which lies between Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement of Ma\u2019ale Adumim.<\/p>\n

All of Israel\u2019s settlements in the West Bank, which it captured from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War, are viewed as illegal by the vast majority of the international community, regardless of whether they have Israeli planning permission.<\/p>\n

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) has slammed the latest move, which has also been criticized by UN chief Antonio Guterres and the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini.<\/p>\n

The project would \u201ccompletely cut off the northern and central West Bank from the southern West Bank \u2014 meaning that there would no longer be any territorial contiguity,\u201d said Lazzarini.<\/p>\n

He said Israel was taking decisions that would make the creation of two states \u201cincreasingly impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Israeli Ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely arrives to attend a Service of Thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey on V-E Day in London, May 8, 2025.(AP Photo\/Kirsty Wigglesworth)<\/p>\n

Britain on Thursday summoned Israeli Ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely to the foreign ministry to protest the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf implemented, these settlement plans would be a flagrant breach of international law and would divide a future Palestinian state in two, critically undermining a two-state solution,\u201d the foreign office said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Hotovely later hit back at the UK over its criticism of the project, telling the Daily Mail<\/a>, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t tell the British where to build in London.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see E1 as part of greater Jerusalem,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Europeans gave Israel \u2018green light to take more\u2019 of West Bank<\/p>\n

Also Thursday,\u00a0US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said Israel\u2019s decision to approve E1 settlement project was a response to the decisions by Western countries to announce plans to recognize a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n

Huckabee told Al Arabiya that US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration hasn\u2019t taken a position on the E1 approval, but did reverse longstanding US policy in his first year by declaring that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are not a violation of international law.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the reasons we\u2019re seeing the more aggressive decision to move into some of these areas is because it\u2019s in reaction to what the Europeans have done \u2014 in concert with the Palestinian Authority \u2014 pushing for a unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state\u2026 that has had a totally disastrous effect, not only on the tension in Judea and Samaria, but it\u2019s had a detrimental effect on resolving things in Gaza,\u201d Huckabee said, using the biblical names for the West Bank.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee speaks to The Times of Israel, August 12, 2025. (Courtesy)<\/p>\n

The US has argued that Hamas hardened its stance in ceasefire-hostage negotiations after countries began to recognize a Palestinian state, but the French decision that began the trend came after the terror group submitted its response that led to the collapse of negotiations in Doha last month.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the Knesset passed a non-binding resolution in favor of annexing the West Bank, also prior to France\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what the Europeans thought they were going to accomplish, but by their actions, they\u2019re accomplishing something that I don\u2019t think they wanted to do, and that is to essentially to give a green light or encourage the Israelis to go ahead and take more pieces of Judea and Samaria, either by declaring sovereignty or annexation,\u201d Huckabee said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that was their goal, but pushing for unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state without the cooperation and participation of Israel is a violation of Oslo,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s going to be this massive violation of the Oslo agreement, then I think people have to prepare for the consequences of that on both sides of the conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel has also been accused of violating the Oslo Accords due to a number of its policies in the West Bank and through its withholding of billions of shekels in tax revenues that belong to the PA.<\/p>\n

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.<\/p>\n


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