The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has slammed a real estate event taking place in the UK capital on Sunday for its alleged promotion of land in the West Bank.
Mr Khan said he had “discussed this directly” with the Metropolitan Police, who promised to investigate any sale of West Bank land or properties arising from the event.
“I’m informed that any allegations of criminality relating to the potentially unlawful sale of property at the event would be assessed by the Met with the view to investigation,” he said.
“Israeli settlements in the West Bank are unjustifiable and illegal under international law. I condemn any attempt to sell property in the settlements in the West Bank, be that in London or anywhere else in the world,” he said at the London Assembly on Friday.
He has also written to the Home Office and Foreign Office to express his concerns, he said.
The ‘Great Israeli Real Estate Event’ is a property show that promotes land in Israel, as well as Jerusalem and settlements in the West Bank.
A spokesperson for the event “strongly denied” the allegations this week. “All exhibitors, without exception, will provide information about properties and projects within the Green Line,” they told Jewish News.
But the event’s website listed the West Bank settlement of Gush Etzion – which the UK considers illegal – among the places visitors could inquire about.
Campaign groups are expected to rally outside the event on Sunday, whose location has not been made public.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper announced this week that the UK government would impose sanctions on six organisations and one individual involved in the “financing, enabling and carrying out” of settler violence in the West Bank. The sanctions will be delivered in co-ordination with Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France and Norway.
She also announced that the UK’s charity commission would investigate British charities’ links to illegal settlements, and that the UK would update its business guidelines to advising British companies not to trade with illegal settlements.
This is in response to Israel's escalating annexation of the West Bank. Tel Aviv launched a call for tenders for the E1 settlement this month, which campaigners say would sever the territory from East Jerusalem.
Labour MP Melanie Ward claimed this week that 32 charities in England and Wales had donated at least £28m to illegal settlements in the West Bank, highlighting that any donations subject to gift aid would require the government to subsidise the donation.
Yet pressure on the government to cancel the event continued to grow on Friday, with 98 cross-party MPs and members of the House of Lords writing an open letter to Ms Cooper.
“Allowing the event to proceed would not only be inconsistent with current UK Government guidance on settlement-related economic activity, it would stand in opposition to the government’s obligations under international law,” the letter said.
Organised by Labour MP Andy McDonald, it was signed by Labour’s Stella Creasy, Liberal Democrat Layla Moran, Conservative Kit Malthouse, and the Green Party's Dr Ellie Chowns, among others.
Mr McDonald called on ministers to “urgently instruct the National Crime Agency to investigate the organisers and participants under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018 and the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.”
Responding to Mr Khan’s statement, Green Party leader Zack Polanski, who is a member of the London Assembly, said he expected the Met to “shut down the event”.
"In practical terms, the Met Police should shut down the event on the grounds that it is unlawful. London risks becoming complicit in settlement expansion if people in our capital are profiting from the theft of Palestinian land,” he said.
"The Mayor should call on the Government to cancel this event outright. The cancellation of this event would demonstrate that London will not tolerate complicity in the dispossession and subjugation of the Palestinian people."
