British citizens could be banned from buying homes in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, according to a former British diplomat.
Tenders opened this week for private companies to build 3,400 settlements in the West Bank. The move would be an illegal annexation that could split the West Bank in half and sever its connections to East Jerusalem.
The UK government warned companies not to get involved in Israel's E1 project in the West Bank in a joint statement last month. But many say more concrete measures are needed.
Sir Vincent Fean, former Consul General, said another important deterrent would be to ban British citizens from buying homes and land in illegal settlements. “It would be possible for our government to criminalise the purchase by British citizens of settlement houses (and) land,” he said at a conference organised by the British Palestine Project.
Mr Fean added that there would be political will in the UK to do so. “To make it criminal offence to buy land in stolen land, would be physically and politically possible. I put that on the table as something that we should advocate,” he said.
“It is doable and we do need to tackle not just the buildings of settlements but the illegality of the settler enterprise as a whole."
Veteran Labour MP Emily Thornberry, chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, which scrutinises government foreign policy, told The National she would be looking into the proposal. “I think it’s really interesting I hadn’t heard of it before. I’m going to have a look at it and see,” she said, adding that she did not yet know which laws or mechanisms could be applied to bring such a ban into force.
Mr Fean described June as a “serious month for action” to prevent annexation. “We have to try to stop that. The only way to stop it now, is to warn that any Israeli entity that bids for those tenders will face economic consequences here, and with our partners,” he said.
Concrete steps
Forty-three British businesses that have been involved in the building of settlements in the occupied West Bank have been contacted by the British-Palestine parliamentary group. “They have now been notified that it will be unlawful for them to engage in any activity, funding, providing materials, and so forth,” Labour MP Deborah Abrahams said.
MPs in Europe, Ireland and Australia would also do the same thing in co-ordination with the APPG, Ms Abrahams said. “So while the government decides what they're going to do, apart from just the statements, we're taking action.”
The UK government has not banned British businesses from trade or development in Israeli settlements, but it said it would “not encourage or offer support” due to their illegality “under international law”.
“There are therefore clear risks related to economic and financial activities in the settlements, and we do not encourage or offer support to such activity,” its official guidance for businesses trading in Israel says.
The UK, in a joint statement with EU countries, called on companies not to take part in the so-called E1 project. “Businesses should not bid for construction tenders for E1 or other settlement developments. They should be aware of legal and reputational consequences of participating in settlement construction, including the risk of involving themselves in serious breaches of international law," the statement said.
An FCDO spokesperson said it had repeatedly condemned the expansion of illegal settlements and sanctioned settler violence. “We have imposed sanctions both on those responsible for that violence and on individual members of the Israeli cabinet for inciting it," they said.
“We continue to call on the Israeli authorities to clamp down on all those who are seeking to inflame tensions, and to tackle the unacceptable violence and destruction of property that is being committed by settler groups against Palestinian communities."
