British government has a ‘hypocritical obsession with Israel,’ says Jerusalem’s top diplomat

Gideon Sa’ar blasts his British counterpart, accusing London of “obsession with Israel” while mocking criticism by Russia during UN Security Council meeting.

By World Israel News Staff

Israel’s foreign minister accused the British government this week of obsessing over the Jewish state and ignoring Israel’s historic rights to the ancestral Jewish homeland.

On Wednesday, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper addressed a hearing of the United Nations Security Council, condemning alleged acts of “settler violence” and criticizing moves by Israel that she claimed threatened the two-state solution.

“We must prevent the destabilization of the West Bank and preserve the viability of a Palestinian state,” said Cooper, who chaired Wednesday’s meeting.

Cooper chastised Israel over recent decisions to register land ownership in Judea and Samaria – a step which could make it easier to expand Israeli towns in the area – and to expand Israeli oversight in areas administered by the Palestinian Authority.

“We are witnessing an all-time high of Israeli settlement expansion and settler violence in a flagrant breach of international law,” Cooper continued.

Russia’s envoy to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, also took aim at Israel’s administrative changes to Judea and Samaria, claiming they showed a “disregard for international law.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar fired back at both Cooper and Nebenzia in a statement to the Security Council, accusing both Russia and Britain of hypocrisy.

Sa’ar mocked Russia’s criticism, saying he nearly burst out laughing over Moscow’s rhetoric regarding “international law.”

“It was amusing to hear the representative of the Russian Federation talk about law, international law, occupation, land expansion, and peaceful resolutions,” Sa’ar said. “I must admit, I had to restrain myself from laughing out loud.”

In his response to Cooper, Sa’ar dismissed the Starmer government’s allegations as being part of a “hypocritical obsession against Jewish presence in the heart of our tiny land.”

“The claim that Israelis cannot live in Judea and Samaria isn’t just inconsistent with international law and Britain’s own Balfour Declaration, but it is also morally distorted. How can Jews live in London, Paris, or New York, but not in the cradle of our civilization?”