London Mayor Condemns Event Promoting Land Sales in Illegal Israeli Settlements

JAKARTA - The Mayor of London, England, condemned the "Israel's Big Real Estate Event" this weekend, part of a series of events to promote the sale of land and property in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Mayor Sadiq Khan expressed "concerns" about the event taking place in the British capital on Sunday, during a Mayor's Questions session on Friday.

"Israeli settlements in the West Bank are unjustified and illegal under international law," Khan said, responding to a question about the event from the leader of the UK Green Party, Zack Polanski, launching Al Jazeera (12/6).

"The settlement is very much linked to the ongoing expulsion of Palestinians," he continued.

"I condemn any attempt to sell properties in settlements in the West Bank, whether in London or anywhere in the world; "I am concerned about the large Israeli property event taking place in our city, which I am about," said Mayor Khan.

The event was organized by My Home in Israel, a real estate agency focused on attracting foreign clients to buy property in Israel.

Human rights groups, including Amnesty (International), have slammed the event for openly advertising the sale of land in Israeli illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Khan said he had discussed the event with the London Metropolitan Police (The Met) and had been told that any criminal allegations relating to the sale of potentially unlawful properties at the event would be assessed by The Met as part of the investigation.

"Given the significant increase in the speed and scale of annexationist actions under the current Israeli government and the increasing state-sponsored settler violence, it is unthinkable that the British government could allow an event that openly promotes activities that encourage settlement expansion to be held in the UK," said Kristyan Benedict, crisis response campaign manager at Amnesty International UK, in a statement.

"This is not a property exhibition," he said.

"This is apartheid and annexation by sales persuasion," Benedict said.

It is known that Israeli settlers are Israeli citizens who live illegally in Palestinian land.

Israel began building illegal settlements after capturing the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in the June 1967 Six-Day War, and now, more than 700,000 settlers - 10 percent of the Israeli population - live in 150 illegal settlements and 128 outposts spread across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The government openly funds and builds settlements, and Israeli authorities give their settlers in the occupied West Bank about $5.6 million a year to monitor, report on, and restrict Palestinian construction in Area C, which is fully administered by Israel and covers more than 60 percent of the West Bank.

United Nations agencies and most countries view West Bank settlements as illegal, citing international conventions.

However, the United States has provided diplomatic protection to Israel for decades, with Washington consistently using its veto power at the United Nations to protect Israel from diplomatic censure.