London – Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists and members of the Palestinian community gathered in central London on Sunday to protest an event promoting the sale of properties and land in Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian territory in the West Bank.
The demonstration took place outside the so-called “Great Israeli Real Estate Event,” where participants denounced what they described as the marketing of stolen Palestinian land in the heart of the British capital.
Protesters carried banners reading, “Stop Israel’s Illegal Sale of Stolen Palestinian Land” and “Thou Shalt Not Steal,” while chanting slogans in support of Palestinian rights and demanding accountability for Israel’s ongoing settlement expansion.
“We are here today as Palestinians living in London to say clearly that our land is not for sale,” said Jeanine Hourani of the Palestinian Youth Movement. “What is happening today is not only morally wrong; it is illegal under international law.”
The protest unfolded amid a heavy police presence, while pro-Israel counter-demonstrators gathered nearby. Some were heard chanting slogans denying Palestinian identity and nationhood, further heightening tensions at the scene.
The controversial event was organized by the Israeli real estate agency My Home in Israel and drew widespread criticism from human rights advocates, legal experts, and British lawmakers, who argued that facilitating the sale of property in illegal settlements effectively normalizes and profits from Israel’s ongoing colonization of occupied Palestinian land.
Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are considered illegal under international law. In 2024, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is unlawful and should come to an end.
Nearly 100 British parliamentarians, including members of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, signed a letter urging the government to prevent the event from taking place and to uphold its legal obligations under international law.
Among them was Layla Moran, the first British MP of Palestinian heritage, who described the event as “unacceptable.”
“It is a stain on Britain’s commitment to international law that this event has been allowed to proceed,” Moran said. “If current laws cannot prevent the sale of illegally occupied land on British soil, then those laws must change.”
The Jewish anti-Zionist group Jewish Anti-Zionist Action also condemned the event, particularly because it was hosted in a synagogue.
The group said granting a platform to the sale of property in Israeli settlements gives legitimacy to the continued dispossession of Palestinians and the expansion of an illegal settlement enterprise built on occupied land.
In response to the controversy, a spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office reiterated that Britain opposes the promotion of property sales in illegal settlements. The government recently updated its guidance to businesses, warning against economic activity linked to Israeli settlements and highlighting the potential legal and reputational consequences of such involvement.
For Palestinians and their supporters, however, the fact that the event was allowed to proceed at all underscores what they see as the international community’s continued failure to hold Israel accountable for decades of settlement expansion, land confiscation, and the displacement of Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank.
As settlement construction accelerates and Palestinian land continues to be fragmented and seized, activists say events such as this are not merely real estate transactions — they are part of a broader system that profits from occupation while denying Palestinians their fundamental rights to land, freedom, and self-determination.
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