Live Update 
From the Liveblog of
Thursday, August 21, 2025
From the Liveblog of
Thursday, August 21, 2025
21 countries condemn approval of E1 settlement project; UK summons Israeli envoy
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Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a press conference announcing his plans to approve more than 3,000 housing units in the E1 settlement project between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim on August 14, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The UK Foreign Office says it has summoned Israel’s ambassador to London, Tzipi Hotovely, in protest of Jerusalem’s approval of the E1 settlement project that severely hampers efforts to establish a Palestinian state.
The UK also joins 20 countries in a joint statement condemning the project.
“If implemented, these settlement plans would be a flagrant breach of international law and would divide a future Palestinian state in two, critically undermining a two-state solution,” the statement from the foreign ministers of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom says.
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