Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions his Department has had with the Israeli Government on the matter of the legality of Israeli settlements built in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

We regularly raise our concerns over the illegality of Israeli settlements built in the occupied Palestinian territories. As well as being illegal under international law, we view settlements as an obstacle to the two state solution. When I visited Israel in August this year, I raised our concern with the Israeli Minister for Regional Cooperation and the Deputy Minister in the Prime Ministers’ Office.