PRESS RELEASE : The expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank is wholly unacceptable and illegal – UK statement at the UN Security Council [September 2024]
The press release issued by the Foreign Office on 19 September 2024.
Statement by UK Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Barbara Woodward, at the UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East.
The death toll in Gaza has reached over forty thousand. Water, sanitation and health infrastructure has been almost completely destroyed. Disease and the risk of famine pose further deadly threats.
And Israel continues to reckon with the appalling toll of October 7th with 101 hostages still held captive in Gaza, subject to unimaginable horror.
Elsewhere in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and across the region, tensions are escalating.
We need to see three things:
First, an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages, and ramping up of aid in Gaza. A deal is the best way to get the hostages home. Force will not provide a sustainable solution to the conflict. The ceasefire and hostage deal, driven by the commendable efforts of the US, Qatar and Egypt, has to be finalised as a matter of urgency.
We call upon Hamas and Israel to agree the deal, and in the meantime for Hamas to grant the ICRC humanitarian access to the hostages whose ordeal continues. Our message to Hamas: let them go.
With winter fast approaching, we call on Israel to take swift action to allow the UN and humanitarian actors to do their job. By making de-confliction work, re-opening land routes for aid, and supporting preparations for winter by allowing a rapid increase in the volume of items for shelter and infrastructure repair.
Second, we must address the deteriorating situation in the West Bank. Expansion of settlements, in clear violation of international law, undermines prospects for peace and must cease immediately.
We have witnessed, with grave concern, how an increasing number of Israeli settlers have systemically used harassment, intimidation and violence to pressure Palestinian communities to leave their land. We call on Israel to hold those responsible to account.
We reiterate our clear position that any attempt to alter the geographic or demographic make-up of the Occupied Palestinian Territories through the use of force and outside of a negotiated solution is wholly unacceptable and illegal.
We also call for an end to the divisive and inflammatory rhetoric we have seen from some Israeli Ministers, which serve to fuel aggression towards Palestinians and humanitarian workers.
Finally, we need to galvanise a political process towards a two-state solution. As the ICJ has advised, Israel should bring an end to its presence in the Occupied Territories as rapidly as possible.
The UK is clear: this must be done through a negotiated solution, with reunification of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in line with 1967 borders and under the effective control of the Palestinian Authority. Peace must be premised upon a safe and secure Israel alongside a safe and secure Palestinian state.
