Tag: West Bank

60 Former UK Ambassadors Warm of Israel’s West Bank Annexation Moves

A group of former British diplomats has called on the UK and its allies to take stronger action against Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, warning that current policies risk enabling annexation and undermining international law.

In a letter published in the Financial Times on Friday, more than 80 former diplomats – including 60 ambassadors, high commissioners and senior officials – said Israel’s expansionist activity and policies in the occupied Palestinian territories amounted to “accelerating annexation.”

“America is indeed falling out of love with Israel. So is Europe. While the world watches Iran and Lebanon, Israel extends control over the West Bank and Gaza. Its accelerating annexation is unmistakable,” the letter said.

They argued that Israel is in breach of both the EU-Israel Association Agreement and the UK-Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement, which require respect for human rights and democratic principles.

“Israel is in breach of both agreements,” the letter said, citing expanding occupier placements, discrimination against Palestinians and what it described as “systematic state-supported settler violence.”

The signatories called for the EU to suspend its association agreement with Israel, ban trade with settlements, halt arms transfers and restrict Israel’s participation in EU programs. They also urged the UK to ban all trade with settlements and review its agreements with Israel.

“Israel’s settlements project aims to kill the viability of the Palestinian state – Gaza, East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank – which Britain recognized in September 2025. That aim needs to fail, for the sake of long-term stability and a just peace.”

The diplomats warned that continued occupier settlement construction, including planned projects in the E1 area of the West Bank, could further undermine the viability of a future Palestinian state.

“Mere words of condemnation are ignored. While the world is distracted, grave contraventions of international law continue in occupied Palestine. We have drawn the EU letter to foreign secretary Yvette Cooper’s attention. Government action is now needed,” the letter added.

April 25, 2026
Israeli West Bank settler expansion scheme threatens Palestinian life: UN

OCHA said the more than 3,000 housing units scheme for settlers as part of the E1 plan would essentially cut off the northern and central West Bank from the south, leading to a devastating humanitarian impact.

This photo taken on Aug. 14, 2025 shows a view of the E1 area, a stretch of land east of Jerusalem between the city and the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim.(Photo by Jamal Awad/Xinhua)

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) — Israel’s West Bank settlement expansion plan negatively affects Palestinians and increases the risk of displacement, UN humanitarians said on Wednesday.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the more than 3,000 housing units scheme for settlers as part of the E1 plan would essentially cut off the northern and central West Bank from the south, leading to a devastating humanitarian impact.

OCHA said the wider occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) would feel the effect, with 18 Palestinian Bedouin communities put at a higher risk of displacement.

“This plan also involves the construction of a bypass road diverting Palestinian traffic away from the main Jerusalem-Jericho road,” the office said. “In this context, OCHA notes that such roads undermine territorial contiguity, increase travel times, and negatively affect people’s livelihoods and access to services.”

OCHA also said that a longstanding Israeli plan to encircle the E1 area with additional sections of the wall would further deepen restrictions on movement and access, and run counter to the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion of 2004 that all sections of that security barrier already built within the OPT must be dismantled.

The humanitarian office said that in the Gaza Strip, the situation is increasingly dire, with children and adults killed, injured and displaced every single day. Starvation and malnutrition also continue to deepen. The United Nations and its partners are sparing no effort to bring critical food and other supplies into Gaza to avert further catastrophe.

“It is critical that the Israeli authorities facilitate humanitarian operations, including shelter support, wherever people are, including Gaza City and in the north of the strip,” the office said.

OCHA said that its partners estimated that 1.4 million people require 3,500 truckloads of tents, tarpaulins and basic household items.

It added that its partners reported that restrictions on international non-governmental organizations and the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees continue to block shelter deliveries.

August 21, 2025
Israel, in Deviance of the world, approves new settlement in West Bank

JERUSALEM: (Xinhua)/FLOWERBUDNEWS : — Israel on Tuesday gave final approval for a new settlement in E1, a highly contentious area of the occupied West Bank.

The Higher Planning Council authorized 3,753 housing units, including 3,401 for final approval in the E1 neighborhood of Maale Adumim. The project would link settlements to create a continuum separating the West Bank from East Jerusalem.

First proposed in the 1990s, the E1 plan has long been frozen due to opposition in Israel and abroad. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered it forward in 2012 and revived it again before the 2020 election.

More than 720,000 Israeli settlers now live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, captured in the 1967 Middle East war, among 3.3 million Palestinians. The settlements are deemed illegal under international law, including a July 2024 ruling by the International Court of Justice that found Israel’s occupation unlawful.

August 21, 2025