![](\"https:\/\/cdn.rt.com\/files\/2017.02\/thumbnail\/58931965c4618884118b4613.jpg\")
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UK Prime Minister Theresa May will meet with her Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu months after Britain backed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an end to illegal settlement-building in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n
The two leaders had been due to meet at the World Economic Forum in Davos, but Netanyahu canceled in protest at the UNSC vote.<\/p>\n
May maintains she is a supporter of Israel. She told the Conservative Friends of Israel two months ago it is a \u201cremarkable country<\/em>,\u201d a \u201cbeacon of tolerance<\/em>,\u201d and a \u201ccrucial ally<\/em>,\u201d according to the Times.<\/p>\n Despite this, the two are likely to clash over Israel\u2019s continued settlement building in defiance of international law.<\/p>\n The Foreign Office on Wednesday issued a statement condemning Israeli plans to further expand settlements and build 3,000 homes in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n \u201cThe announcement of further settlement units in the West Bank is part of a growing trend which we condemn<\/em>,\u201d said Middle East minister Tobias Ellwood.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have consistently been clear that settlements are illegal under international law, and not conducive to peace.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThis spike in settlement activity undermines trust and makes a two-state solution \u2014 with an Israel that is safe from terrorism and a Palestinian state that is viable and sovereign \u2014 much harder to achieve<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n British-Israeli relations have soured since the UNSC resolution was passed in December, when Prime Minister Netanyahu summoned Britain\u2019s ambassador to Tel Aviv on Christmas Day for a telling-off.<\/p>\n It later emerged the UK had played a key role in drafting the resolution, according to the Guardian.<\/p>\n Days after the vote, the Telegraph quoted an Israeli official as saying: \u201cWe\u2019re disappointed that a friend and ally such as the UK would take a leading role in formulating and promoting this hostile resolution.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n UK Foreign Office minister Ellwood welcomed the resolution on Twitter, while Britain\u2019s ambassador to the UN, Matthew Rycroft, also reiterated London\u2019s support for the decision.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" UK Prime Minister Theresa May will meet with her Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu months after Britain backed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an end to illegal settlement-building in the occupied West Bank. The two leaders had been due to meet at the World Economic Forum in Davos, but Netanyahu canceled in protest at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":293072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-293071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}