Five European nations on Monday warned businesses not to seek contracts for Israel's E1 settlement project in the occupied West Bank, calling it a “deliberate and direct attack” on the viability of a Palestinian state, saying it risks unprecedented annexation and forced displacement.
Denmark, Greece, France, Latvia and the UK, which together form the so-called E5 group on the UN Security Council, issued a statement ahead of a meeting to discuss Palestine.
“The E1 settlement development would divide the West Bank in two, further separate East Jerusalem and constitute a deliberate and direct attack on the viability and contiguity of an independent and sovereign Palestinian State,” they said.
Israel has approved more than 3,400 housing units for E1, a tract of land east of Jerusalem that has been under consideration for development for more than two decades but was frozen due to US pressure during previous administrations.
Briefing the council, Itay Epshtain, special adviser on international law at the Norwegian Refugee Council, said field assessments showed Palestinian families displaced in the West Bank faced deteriorating shelter, collapsing livelihoods and “repeated displacement, with more than 70 per cent of displaced households reporting threats against women and children, including sexualised threats”.
Mr Epshtain said forcible transfer “does not always announce itself with a single order”, but occurs through accumulated coercion, attacks, demolished homes, lost livelihoods and absent protection. He called on the council to put Israel “on notice” as the “occupying power”.
“Forced displacement persists because the international response remains fragmented,” Mr Epshtain said. “We are not asking this council to invent a new law. We are asking it to apply the law it has already affirmed.”
Speaking to the Security Council via a video link, Palestinian journalist Mariam Barghouti accused the Israeli government of actively encouraging settler violence through Hebrew-language media and legislation.
She also claimed international complicity, telling the council that US-based charities were fund-raising to provide military-grade weapons to Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
Israel's UN envoy Danny Danon rejected accusations that his country deliberately targets civilians, saying the Security Council had repeatedly recycled the same allegations since Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack.
"Since October 7, this council has heard the same accusations against us again and again — accusations that Israel intentionally killed civilians, that Israel intentionally targets doctors, aid workers and journalists," Mr Danon said. "Israel does not target civilians. Israel does not target journalists. Israel targets terrorists."
He accused the UN of operating on "anti-Israel autopilot."
"A claim is made against Israel. The UN repeats it, and then the world condemns it," he said.
