The United Kingdom, Australia, Japan and 18 other countries have strongly condemned Israel’s decision to advance construction of a large settlement in the occupied West Bank, warning that it would make a future Palestinian state impossible.
In a joint statement issued on Thursday, the group described the plan as a “violation of international law” and demanded its “immediate reversal.”
The move concerns a 12-square-kilometre tract of land east of Jerusalem, known as “E1,” where Israel plans to build 3,400 homes for settlers. Critics say the development will sever the occupied West Bank from East Jerusalem, seen by Palestinians as the capital of their future state, while connecting existing Israeli settlements across the area.
“Any plans for a two-state solution will become impossible by dividing any Palestinian state and restricting Palestinian access to Jerusalem,” the statement said.
Signatories include Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden, alongside UK, Australia and Japan.
The countries warned that the settlement “risks undermining security and fuels further violence and instability, taking us further away from peace,” while offering “no benefits to the Israeli people.”
The Palestinian Authority, the European Commission and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have all opposed the project since it was announced last week.
EU added that “ongoing settler violence and military operations” combined with unilateral moves like E1 are “further eroding any possibility for peace.”
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, however, hailed the settlement plan, saying such projects would help erase the idea of Palestinian statehood. “This reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognise and no one to recognise,” he said.