Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what status Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank currently hold under international law.

As the Minister for the Middle East and North Africa made clear in his statement on 7 January, it is the UK's longstanding position that settlements are illegal under international law, present an obstacle to peace, and threaten the physical viability of the two-state solution. We want to see a contiguous West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as part of a viable and sovereign Palestinian state, based on 1967 borders. We urge Israel to halt its settlement expansion, which promotes the effective annexation of the West Bank, immediately.