UK government urged to act over proposed illegal Israeli settlement

Former diplomats say ministers must threaten action against any companies bidding to build E1 settlement of 3,400 houses in West Bank Britain must lead efforts to stop Israel’s annexation of the West Bank – full text of letter A group of leading former UK ambassadors and high commissioners has called on the UK government to threaten action against any companies bidding to build an illegal Israeli settlement “designed to divide the West Bank in two and destroy Palestine’s viability”. In a letter published in the Guardian, the 32 former diplomats said tenders for the planned E1 settlement, which would involve the construction of 3,400 houses on “Palestinian soil” as part of Israel’s “systemic West Bank annexation”, were due to be issued on 1 June. The letter called for a UK trade ban on settlements products and services, as well as “suspending trade concessions with Israel for its breach of the human rights provision in the UK-Israel trade and partnership agreement”. Criticism of the E1 plans by Britain, Germany, France and Italy, “does not deter this Israeli government, grown used over decades to rhetorical condemnation without consequences”, said the letter, whose signatories inclu