Reacting to news of Israel expanding control over the West Bank, leader of the Parliamentary Green Party, Dr Ellie Chowns MP, said:
The reported decisions by Israel’s security cabinet to make it easier for settlers to buy land in the West Bank and to expand enforcement powers over Palestinians are a profound assault on Palestinian rights, further entrenching occupation and legitimising illegal settlement expansion.
These measures are built on the foundation of decades of dispossession, subjugation, and military control of Palestinians, and stand against the stark backdrop of the catastrophic genocide committed in Gaza, where swathes of the population remain deprived of vital aid, medical care, and adequate nutrition, and Palestinians in Gaza continue to be killed by Israeli forces despite a ceasefire being in place. These are not the actions of a state seeking peace; they are the latest extension of a long-upheld system that denies Palestinians the right to determine their own future.
When the Green Party welcomed the UK’s recognition of the state of Palestine last year as a necessary and long-overdue step, we also warned that recognition alone was not enough – it must be accompanied by meaningful action to uphold Palestinian rights. The UK must take those actions now – ban imports from illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine, halt all arms sales to and military cooperation with the Israeli Government, drive independent investigations into war crimes and support justice mechanisms for victims, and impose sanctions on those Israeli Government officials who are responsible, including Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior figures, given the flagrant disregard for international law displayed through the expansion of illegal settlements.
