Revealed: New details of London event promoting Israeli settlement-linked companies
A Middle East Eye investigation has uncovered previously unreported details of an upcoming London event’s connection to illegal Israeli settlements.
The Great Israeli Real Estate Event is scheduled to be held in London this Sunday 14 June but its location is being kept secret.
Prominent politicians, including Green Party leader Zack Polanski and Your Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, have told MEE the event should be banned.
Emanuel Vatari, CEO of one of the sponsors of the event, the Emanuel Group, posted a list of companies participating on his Facebook page on Tuesday.
The list includes Harey Zahav, an Israeli real estate development company whose website advertises property in Negohot, an illegal Israeli settlement in the southern Hebron Hills in the occupied West Bank.
Also on the list is The Meshulam Levinstein Group, a collection of engineering, construction and real estate companies.
It has built residential and commercial projects in illegal settlements in both the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem.
One was a housing project and a commercial centre it built in the settlement neighbourhood of Homat Shmuel in occupied East Jerusalem.
‘We are pursuing this particular event’
– Yvette Cooper, British foreign secretary
Another participant is the Tivuch Shelly real estate agency, which advertises properties in Ma’ale Adunim – a West Bank settlement.
Africa Israel Residences, another company participating in the event, is part of the Africa Israel Group, which has been involved in several projects in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Tuesday, in response to a question from Labour MP Richard Burgon on whether the government would ban the event, that “we are pursuing this particular event, and also if there are any cases where we find that there are breaches of UK law, we will pursue those issues as well”.
MEE has sent evidence of the event’s connections to companies involved in illegal settlements to the Foreign Office and asked for comment.
Mamdani condemns event in NYC
News of the event in London comes after the government said it would “explicitly advise businesses against economic and financial activity in illegal settlements” on Tuesday.
Organisers of the real estate event on Wednesday denied that it would feature land for sale in the occupied West Bank in comments to Jewish News, saying: “All exhibitors, without exception, will provide information about properties and projects within the Green Line.
“We believe that these ridiculous allegations are motivated by anti-Israeli and terrorist supporters, seeking only excuses to attack Jews in general and the State of Israel in particular.”
The Great Israeli Real Estate Event took place in New York City last month, where The Intercept reported “at least one table advertising land sales in Kfar Eldad, Karnei Shomron, and other Israeli settlements in the occupied territories”.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said he was “deeply opposed to the real estate expo this evening that includes the promotion of the sale of land in settlements in the Occupied West Bank”.
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Green Party leader Zack Polanski told MEE: “It’s obscene that London will be playing host to an event openly advertising the sale of land in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank while horrific settler violence against Palestinians is on the rise.”
He added: “Sadiq Khan should intervene to stop this event taking place in our city and show that London does not tolerate complicity with the dispossession and subjugation of the Palestinian people.”
MEE has put Polanski’s comments to London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s office.
Your Party leader and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told MEE that “Israel is now selling Palestinian land at a real estate fair in London this weekend.
“Let us all say: no, it is totally wrong, illegal and unconscionable that an occupying power would travel abroad to sell land that isn’t theirs, to make even more Palestinian people homeless.”
Legal group writes to Met Police
As details of the event emerge, legal groups and rights activists have also called for it to be banned.
The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), a UK-based legal group, has sent a formal letter to London’s Metropolitan Police, calling for an “immediate investigation into the legality of the event and those associated with the event under UK domestic law”.
The ICJP also said it has written to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Business Secretary Peter Kyle.
Orlaith Roe, the ICJP’s public affairs and communications officer, said: “The prospect of an event in London promoting property in illegal Israeli settlements is outrageous and flies in the face of the UK’s own longstanding position on the matter.
“Palestinian land is not for sale, and occupation is not a real estate opportunity. It is a violation of international law.
“I would also remind the Home Secretary that she has the power to prevent this event from going ahead and to ensure the UK’s own position on the illegality of Israeli settlements is upheld.”
Amnesty International UK urged the government earlier this week to take “immediate action to prevent the event from proceeding on UK soil.”
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The event’s website, at the time of writing, displayed a map of Israel which appeared to include the occupied Palestinian territories.
The website previously advertised Gush Etzion, a cluster of settlements south of Jerusalem, but from Tuesday, Gush Etzion had apparently been removed from the website.
Jeanine Hourani, a representative of the Palestinian Youth Movement, which is campaigning for the event to be banned, said: “The removal of Gush Etzion from the website shows the pressure is working. But this is not enough. Our demand has been clear from the beginning: for the entire event to be cancelled.”
Independent MP Shockat Adam told MEE that “this is not a neutral property event. It is an expo that, according to its own promotional material and participating companies, will showcase and market housing connected to illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank”.
Meanwhile, Adnan Hussain, another independent MP, told MEE that “to allow the event would be to indicate approval of Israel’s illegal activities in the occupied West Bank”.
On Wednesday, Labour MP Melanie Ward criticised the 32 British charities which she showed have sent over £28m ($37.5m) to Israeli settlements in recent years.
Ward last week submitted a complaint to Britain’s charity regulator over the charities.
Although Ward asked the prime minister to confirm whether charitable donations to settlements were banned, Keir Starmer only responded that “no UK charity should be supporting [settlements]”.
MEE has attempted to reach the event’s organisers for comment but has not yet received a response.
