Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on the owners of Palestinian property under the control of the Palestinian Authority in East Jerusalem of the Israeli High Court of Justice giving permission to demolish 13 buildings.

​Our Embassy in Tel Aviv discussed our concerns about the increase in demolitions in East Jerusalem with the Israeli Authorities on 25 June. The nature of these demolitions which took place within an area of the West Bank controlled by the Palestinian Authority is particularly concerning and we continue to monitor the situation closely. Demolitions and evictions of Palestinians from their homes cause unnecessary suffering to ordinary Palestinians; call into question Israel's commitment to a viable two-state solution; and, in all but the most exceptional of cases, are contrary to International Humanitarian Law. We fund a number of projects to monitor and report on settlement expansion in East Jerusalem and the West Bank and to protect vulnerable Palestinian communities from the effects of settlement expansion.