UK Embassy cancels move to building owned by "Israeli" settlement builder

The British Embassy in ‘Israel' says it has canceled plans to relocate to new offices because one of the owners is believed to be involved in building Jewish settlements.

Spokeswoman Karen Kaufman says the embassy was planning to move to a building in Tel Aviv partly owned by the Africa-‘Israel' real-estate company. Pro-Palestinian activists say a subsidiary of Africa-Israel undertakes construction work in settlements.

Kaufman says the embassy asked Africa-‘Israel' for more information, but the company did not satisfy British concerns. The company is owned by Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev and did not return messages seeking comment.

Several months ago the London-based The Independent reported that the British government's plan to rent new premises in the Tel Aviv skyscraper has sparked a wave of protests in the country.

According to the report, Pro-Palestinian organizations urged the British Foreign Office to cancel the plans, arguing that one of the company's subsidiaries is prominent in settlement building and that Leviev is a big contributor to the Land Redemption fund, which acquires Palestinian land for Jewish settlements.

Daniel Machover, a UK-based Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights organization said in a letter to The Independent that renting space from Leviev is "tantamount to HM Government condoning ‘Israel's' settlement building, supporting clear violations of international law, which in some cases (amounts) to grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and hindering the possibility of peace in the Middle East".

According to The Independent, most Western governments - including Britain - regard settlements as illegal under international law.