UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has said that Britain summoned Israel's Chargé d’Affaires after the Israeli government launched a tender for a major illegal settlement project in the E1 area of the occupied West Bank, calling the move "unacceptable and destructive."
"E1 would cut across the heart of Palestine and risks separating the West Bank from occupied East Jerusalem, which would endanger the viability of a two-state solution," Miliband said in a statement.
"The UK has been clear privately and publicly in our opposition to E1 and our support for a two-state solution as the only way to ensure long-term security and peace for both Palestinians and Israelis. All settlements damage that prospect and are a flagrant breach of international law," he added.
The Israeli government broke a commitment over the controversial E1 illegal settlement project in occupied East Jerusalem by issuing a tender for 1,234 illegal settlement units without notifying petitioners who had challenged the project in court.
Miliband said he raised the issue directly with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar and demanded that Israel immediately halt its plans, withdraw the tender, and stop illegal settlement expansion.
"In addition, the Israeli Chargé d’Affaires has been summoned to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, where we set out the UK's profound objection to this move by the Netanyahu government and demanded an immediate reversal," he noted.
He warned that illegal settlement expansion and violence by illegal Israeli settlers were worsening conditions for Palestinians and creating divisions that could become difficult to reverse.
"The impact of settler violence and terrorism has been catastrophic for Palestinian communities. Settlement expansion and attempts to create irreversible divisions on the ground threaten peace, security and the prospects for a viable Palestinian state," he said, stressing that Britain will not stand back and accept the destruction of the two-state solution.
