The UK has condemned Israel’s approval of plans for a new West Bank settlement, which has been hailed as “erasing” the idea of a Palestinian state by an Israeli minister.
David Lammy said the settlement, planned to be built east of Jerusalem, “would divide a Palestinian state in two”.
In a post on the X social media platform, the foreign secretary called the settlement in the West Bank “a flagrant breach of international law”, which “critically undermines the two-state solution”, and urged the Israeli government to reverse the decision.
The approval of the plans was announced by Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, on Wednesday after they received the final go-ahead from Israel’s higher planning committee.
Mr Smotrich, an ultra-nationalist in the ruling right-wing coalition, said in a statement that the government was delivering with the settlement what it had promised for years: “The Palestinian state is being erased from the table, not with slogans but with actions.”
He said last week that the settlement would “finally bury the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognise and no one to recognise”.
The settlement is set to be built in E1, an open tract of land east of Jerusalem, and includes around 3,500 apartments to expand the existing settlement of Maale Adumim.
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E1 has been eyed for Israeli development for more than two decades, but plans were halted due to pressure from the US during previous administrations.
Peace Now, which tracks settlement activity in the West Bank, said if the bureaucratic process moves quickly, infrastructure work on E1 could start in the next few months, with the construction of homes to follow in about a year.
“The E1 plan is deadly for the future of Israel and for any chance of achieving a peaceful two-state solution. We are standing at the edge of an abyss, and the government is driving us forward at full speed,” Peace Now said in a statement last week.
It added that the planned settlement was “guaranteeing many more years of bloodshed”.
‘Stake through the heart of the two-state solution’
A two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict would see a Palestinian state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza existing side by side with Israel, but campaign groups fear the new settlement could undermine a future peace deal with the Palestinians.
The UN condemned the decision to approve the settlement, with spokesperson Stephane Dujarric saying that it “will drive a stake through the heart of the two-state solution”.
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The Palestinian foreign ministry added that the settlement would isolate Palestinian communities living in the area and undermine the possibility of a two-state solution.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not yet commented on the plans.
But during a visit to a West Bank settlement on Sunday, he said: “I said 25 years ago that we will do everything to secure our grip on the Land of Israel, to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, to prevent the attempts to uproot us from here. Thank God, what I promised, we have delivered.”
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Today, an estimated 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. There is also a growing movement of Israelis wanting to build settlements in Gaza.
Settlers make up around 5% of Israel’s population and 15% of the West Bank’s population, according to data from Peace Now.
Settlements are illegal under international law and have been condemned by the UN. They are, however, authorised by the Israeli government.
