Knesset Speaker, who lives in a West Bank settlement, to address British MPs

Yuli Edelstein, the Speaker of Israel’s Knesset, will address British MPs and Lords on March 2 in Westminster, at an event organised by the British Inter-Parliamentary Union (BGIPU). The meeting will be chaired by Louise Ellman MP, chair of the All-Party Britain-Israel Parliamentary Group.

Edelstein, a Likud politician, is a resident of Neve Daniel, a settlement near Bethlehem. Around 17 percent of Neve Daniel is privately-owned Palestinian land, and according to one study, some 19 homes in the colony actually stand on privately-owned Palestinian land.

Neve Daniel is part of the so-called ‘Gush Etzion’ settlement bloc that restricts Palestinians’ access to precious agricultural and cultural resources in the southern West Bank.

Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, according to the United Nations (expressed in both Security Council and General Assembly resolutions), the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and others.

The settlements are, as Amnesty International has put it, “inherently discriminatory”, causing “the mass, systematic and ongoing violations of Palestinians’ human rights.” Under Article 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Israel’s settlements policy is a war crime.

Edelstein is not just a settler himself – he also actively encourages the colonisation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) by supporting initiatives like the ‘Lobby for Greater Israel’, whose members want “to hold onto all of Judea and Samaria [the West Bank].”

In October 2014, Edelstein declared his support for Netanyahu’s “intention to authorise construction and development” in West Bank settlements, “against the background of American condemnation.” According to Edelstein, Israel must develop “the student villages and neighbourhoods in Samaria, Gush Etzion and Har Homa” – all illegal settlements – in the same way as Tel Aviv.

The previous month, Edelstein attended the inauguration ceremony for a new neighbourhood of 48 housing units in Har Bracha settlement in the northern West Bank, an expansion described in The Jerusalem Post as “a substantial addition” to the colony.

In January 2012, Edelstein helped host 70 international journalists for a tour of West Bank settlements. The same year, Edelstein spoke at Ariel University, located in a settlement of the same name, on the topic of Israel’s public diplomacy efforts. In 2011, Edelstein brought “a number of top Zionist rabbis to the Knesset…in protest of the dismantling of West Bank settlements.”

Unsurprisingly, as both a settler and active supporter of the settlement enterprise, Edelstein is also opposed to Palestinian statehood in the OPT.

In 2012, Edelstein called on Netanyahu “to immediately bring the report of the Levy Commission to a discussion and hopefully to a vote.” He added: “I think it’s very important for this government to make sure that the decisions made by the Levy Committee do not just remain theoretical but are made part of the government policy in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank].”

The Levy report notoriously denied the very existence of an Israeli military occupation, and even proposed ways for legalising settlement outposts built on privately-owned Palestinian land.

In October 2013, Edelstein stated that the Jewish settlers in Hebron “are not, God forbid, going anywhere”, and that “Jerusalem will be the capital of the State of Israel and not the capital of two states.” Two months prior, Edelstein “visited eight West Bank settlements…including isolated ones”, and declared a comprehensive agreement with the Palestinians as “unrealistic” for the time being.

Finally, Edelstein is also close to right-wing extremists, and has voiced disturbing views himself.

In October 2012, Edelstein spoke at a conference organised by Regavim, an extremist right-wing group that on its (Hebrew) website, boasts of fighting a “takeover” by “hostile elements” – a reference to Palestinians whom they seek to expel from their homes and lands. Regavim, in its own words, wants to help “preserve the physical grip” of a Jewish majority “over the country’s land.”

The conference in question was called ‘Emergency Campaign to Save the Negev’, where Edelstein urged an end to “the merry-go-round cycle of lawful eviction of illegal settlements followed by the immediate return of illegal squatting” – a reference to Bedouin citizens.

In December 2011, Edelstein described “the Arab nation” as “deplorable” at a meeting near Tel Aviv. A journalist later asked his spokesperson: “Are you aware of the fact there are some 80 million Arabs in the world, from Sudan to Syria?” The reply: “Yes, there are – and the minister meant them all.”

Given these kinds of sentiments, and the fact that Edelstein is an enthusiastic supporter of – and direct participant in – the Israeli government’s systematic abuse of Palestinian human rights and grave violations of international law, why is BGIPU granting him a platform in Parliament?

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.