Image source, ReutersLast week, Ed Miliband said he would unveil a “comprehensive reset” of the British government’s policy on Israel.
In his first speech to Parliament as foreign secretary, he said plans from Israel to build some 1,200 settlement homes in the so-called E1 area – east of Jerusalem – were “illegal under international law”.
Miliband called the plans “the crossing of a red line, as it cuts through the heart of the West Bank and risks making a Palestinian state unviable”.
The foreign secretary said last month the Israeli Chargé d’Affaires had been summoned to the Foreign Office, where he had “set out the UK’s profound objection to this move by the Netanyahu government and demanded an immediate reversal”.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar responded by saying it was “absurd for Britain to lecture the Jewish people about where they may live in their historic tiny homeland”.
He said: “The UK government’s decision to damage the relationship between our countries is deeply unfortunate.”
