Israel FM invokes Balfour Declaration in rebuttal to UK criticism of West Bank settlement plans

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar rejected British criticism of Israeli settlement expansion on Thursday, asserting that the West Bank and Jerusalem form part of what he called the “Land of Israel” and that Jews have a right to live throughout the territory.

Sa’ar was responding to British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, who criticized the publication of tenders connected to the E1 settlement project and said Britain would not accept steps that destroy prospects for a two-state solution.

The Israeli foreign minister described Miliband’s remarks as “condescending and biased,” arguing that Jews have the right to live throughout the “Land of Israel” in the same way that British citizens may live anywhere in the United Kingdom.

Sa’ar also invoked the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which expressed British government support for the establishment in Palestine of a “national home for the Jewish people.” He presented the declaration as recognition of Jewish historical claims to the land, including territories now at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

He further accused Britain of hypocrisy, pointing to territories it continues to administer outside the United Kingdom and arguing that London was therefore in no position to lecture Israel about where Jews could live.

Sa’ar maintained that decisions concerning development of the E1 area were not new, saying the process dated to 2025 and that planning and tender procedures had been underway for months.

The E1 area, located east of Jerusalem between the city and the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, is particularly contentious because settlement construction there could further restrict territorial continuity between Palestinian areas of the occupied West Bank.

The international community considers Israeli settlements in the territories occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, illegal under international law.