The recommendations which have appeared on the UK Trade and Investment website in an “Overseas Business Risk Report” for Israel, say that “EU citizens and businesses should also be aware of the potential reputational implications involved in economic and financial activities in settlements, as well as possible abuses of the rights of individuals.”, Russia Today reported on Tuesday.

The advice clearly states that the UK does not recognize Israeli illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, East al-Quds, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied during the 1967 Six Day War.

The report also states that there are financial risks in doing business in the occupied territories and that the British government will not “encourage or offer support to such activity.”

“Financial transactions, investments, purchases, procurements as well as other economic activities (including in services like tourism) in Israeli settlements or benefiting Israeli settlements, entail legal and economic risks stemming from the fact that the Israeli settlements, according to international law, are built on occupied land and are not recognized as a legitimate part of Israel's territory,” the warning says.

“This may result in disputed titles to the land, water, mineral or other natural resources which might be the subject of purchase or investment.”

“Settlements constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impossible”, the warning adds.

Israeli diplomats in London and the Foreign Ministry officials in al-Quds told their British counterparts that they were disappointed in the recommendations, Haaretz reports.

“We told them we are currently holding talks with the Palestinians and thus issuing such a recommendation at this time will only do harm,” a senior Foreign Ministry official told the newspaper.

NTJ/BA