‘UK condemns new Israeli settlements’

British government has condemned the Israeli regime’s announcement of new settlement units on Palestinian territories, British Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East says.

Alistair Burt condemned the recent decisions by Israeli authorities to build 1096 settlement units in the occupied West Bank and 63 units in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

He also urged the Zionist regime to avoid steps which could undermine efforts to revive negotiations between the two parties.

“Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, undermine trust and threaten the viability of the two-state solution,” Burt said.

“The UK urges the Israeli authorities to reverse these decisions,” he added.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds in 1967.

Much of the international community, however, regards the settlements illegal because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are hence subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.