Email your MP: Stop the E1 settlement; ban settlement trade in goods and services
Posted: 28th July 2026
We have a new Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and Middle East Minister. Those changes present an opportunity to press for the consistent implementation of international law, sadly lacking hitherto.
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Britain Palestine Project Team
Please convey this letter with your comments to the Foreign Secretary and the Middle East Minister.
Soon, with two months for potential bidders to respond, the Government of Israel will launch tenders to build the E1 settlement. Their stated intention is to prevent forever the emergence of the sovereign, independent state of Palestine, which our Government rightly recognised last September. Finance Minister Smotrich has made Israel’s intentions clear. E1 will cut off East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, and split the West Bank in two. For the United Kingdom, France and Germany, building E1 crosses a red line. In 2025 the UK Government said « The E1 settlement plan would critically undermine the two-state solution – the only route to a lasting peace for both Israelis and Palestinians ».
The UK needs to go beyond condemnation and warnings. Our Government should give a lead to its international partners by stating now that it will sanction any bidder to build or finance E1.
The International Court of Justice advises that Israel’s 1967 occupation of Palestine – Gaza, East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank – is unlawful. The UK should work to end the occupation as rapidly as possible, and must do nothing to prolong it. Trade in goods and services with settlements self-evidently prolongs the occupation, by delivering economic benefit to Israel from stolen land. Our Government should ban all UK trade with settlements – goods and services, including investment, insurance and all other financial services.
It is wrong that British citizens can purchase property in illegal settlements, and that UK based charities fund settlements. The Government should make both practices illegal.
The Government was elected to uphold international law without fear or favour. Consistency should be its hallmark. Russia in Ukraine and Israel in Palestine are breaking the same laws. There cannot be differential treatment, or there is no law.