A growing cross-party political movement in the United Kingdom is pushing to block a controversial upcoming real estate event that promotes land sales in illegally occupied Palestinian territories, with nearly 100 members of both the House of Commons and House of Lords throwing their weight behind the campaign.
Planned for this Sunday in London, the privately organized Great Israeli Real Estate Event has drawn fierce backlash for its core business: marketing plots and properties built in Israeli settlements across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem—all of which are classified as illegal under long-standing international law. Notably, event organizers have deliberately hidden the venue from public view, fueling further criticism over the opaque nature of the gathering.
The push to cancel the event gained public traction Friday, when Andy McDonald, Labour MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East, shared an open letter to the UK government on the social platform X. In his post, McDonald emphasized that the British government has a clear opening to meet its binding international legal obligations by stopping the event, arguing that allowing it to go forward would amount to complicity in Israel’s unlawful occupation of Palestinian land.
The joint letter, addressed to newly appointed Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, frames the event as an integral part of Israel’s decades-long colonial expansion project. It notes that the event enables the sale of land forcibly seized from displaced Palestinian families, while millions of Palestinian refugees who were displaced from their land during the founding of Israel—and their descendants—remain barred from exercising their internationally recognized right of return to their original properties.
Top political figures across multiple UK parties have lined up to back the cancellation call, including Green Party leader Zack Polanski and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, both of whom confirmed to independent outlet Middle East Eye that they believe the secretive event should be fully banned. London’s Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan has also publicly condemned the gathering, stating he opposes any effort to market property in illegal West Bank settlements and that he shares deep concerns about the event being hosted in the capital.
Legal advocacy groups have already escalated the matter to law enforcement: Middle East Eye has confirmed that groups have asked London’s Metropolitan Police Service to investigate whether the event can be blocked under a Serious Crime Prevention Order. Earlier reporting from the outlet also uncovered concrete links between participating firms and enterprises that operate exclusively in illegal settlements.
Earlier this week, Emanuel Vatari, CEO of the Emanuel Group—one of the event’s lead sponsors—publicly posted a full list of participating companies to his Facebook page. Among the named firms is Harey Zahav, an Israeli property developer that openly advertises residential units in Negohot, an illegal Israeli settlement located in the southern Hebron Hills of the occupied West Bank. Also on the list is the Meshulam Levinstein Group, a multi-disciplinary engineering, construction and real estate conglomerate that has built both residential and commercial developments in illegal settlements across the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.
This is not the first time the Great Israeli Real Estate Event has sparked controversy. Last month, U.S.-based outlet The Intercept reported that during a previous iteration of the event held in New York City, multiple vendors were advertising land sales in Kfar Eldad, Karnei Shomron, and other illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.
Amnesty International UK has added its voice to the campaign, calling on the UK government to take immediate action to block the gathering from taking place on British soil earlier this week. A recent Amnesty International report documents that the current Israeli government has expanded access to gun licenses for civilian settlers, increased state funding for illegal settlements, and accelerated both the construction of new settlement units and the formal legalization of unauthorized outposts—settlements built even in violation of Israeli domestic law, which the government has increasingly retroactively legalized. The international community has repeatedly confirmed that all Israeli settlements, outposts, and commercial activities in occupied Palestinian territories violate the Fourth Geneva Convention and international humanitarian law.
Critics warn that allowing the event to proceed in London would place the United Kingdom in violation of its own international legal obligations, and could open the country to accusations of complicity in potential war crimes linked to Israel’s prolonged occupation and settlement expansion.