Britain Should Not Side With Hamas Against Israeli Settlements Expansion

NEW YORK – A leading pro-Israel organization has condemned comments by Britain’s Minister for the Middle East, Hamish Falconer, criticizing the Israeli government’s decision to approve 22 new Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. Americans For A Safe Israel (AFSI) calls the British statements “wrong and immoral.”

A Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, denounced the Israeli decision, calling it “part of the war led by Netanyahu against the Palestinian people.” In parallel, Minister Falconer stated that “settlements… further imperil the two-state solution, and do not protect Israel.”

“For three decades, Israel refrained from establishing new communities in these territories, hoping that such restraint would encourage Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority (PA) to make peace. It didn’t work—all Israel received in return from Abbas and his PA henchmen was murder and incitement,” said Moshe Phillips, Chairman of AFSI. “There is not a single word in the Oslo Accords prohibiting Israel from creating new communities in the Israeli-controlled portions of Judea and Samaria. The PA signed those accords and is bound by them.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog, speaking in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, said: “The idea of the two-state solution is something which, on record, I supported in the past, many times. But I had a wake-up call following October 7.”

“Polls in Israel show that over two-thirds of Israelis support extending Israeli sovereignty over these territories,” added Phillips. “It is immoral for British officials to unilaterally declare where Jews can and cannot build homes for their families in Judea.”

Moshe Phillips is national chairman of Americans For A Safe Israel (www.AFSI.org), a leading pro-Israel advocacy and education organization.