Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether settlement expansion on Palestinian lands in the West Bank is higher than population growth in Israel; and what assessment they have made of the impact of any such increase on the viability of a two-state solution using land swaps.

​We are aware of media and UN reports that settlement expansion in the Occupied Palestinian Territories has surpassed population growth in Israel. At the UN Security Council on 20 June, the UK Permanent Representative to the UN expressed concern about continuing Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank, which is contrary to international law and makes a two-state solution harder to achieve. We regularly raise our grave concerns on this issue with the Government of Israel and urge it to reverse its policy of settlement expansion.