France, Germany, Britain and Italy condemned on Thursday plans by Israel to open up construction tenders for a residential property project called 'E1' in the West Bank.
"The decision by the Israeli government to publish bid offers for construction projects within the framework of the E1 settlers' project is unacceptable," said a joint statement by the leaders of those four countries.
The UK will prepare targeted sanctions against people involved in Israeli settlement expansion and other measures in response to the E1 project east of Jerusalem, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said on Wednesday.
Miliband said the UK had summoned Israel's chargé d’affaires over the tender and demanded that the Israeli government halt the E1 plans, retract the tender, and stop settlement expansion. The British government said it would announce a broader package of measures in the coming weeks.
"Britain will not stand back and accept the destruction of the Two-State Solution,” Miliband said.
The statement came as Israel moved forward with the marketing of the first 1,400 housing units in E1, part of a larger plan for 3,412 homes in the area between Jerusalem and Ma'aleh Adumim. The Civil Administration's Higher Planning Committee approved the project in August 2025.
Israeli FM blasts UK counterpart's 'patronizing' statement on settlements
In response, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said he "rejected outright the statement of the UK Foreign Secretary and the patronizing tone of his words."
"The Jewish people have the right to live throughout the Land of Israel, just as the British have the right to live in London and throughout the United Kingdom," he wrote.
"Britain itself still controls colonial territories thousands of miles from its shores. It is absurd for Britain to lecture the Jewish people about where they may live in their historic tiny homeland, when the Jewish people’s connection and right to this land is the most extensively documented of any people in human history."
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir slammed Milibrand's statements.
"Someone should update Ed that the British Mandate for the Land of Israel ended in 1948 and that Israel is an independent state," he wrote in a post on X/Twitter.
"Perhaps instead of playing make-believe about the Mandate era, he ought to look out of the window at his London, which is rapidly turning into an Islamic Caliphate."