UK Foreign Office silent on Israeli settler they have employed

While the story has made little impact in the mainstream media, it’s been known for a few weeks that the UK embassy in Israel employed a settler. This is problematic, as the Israeli ‘settlements’ in the West Bank are illegal – not that the Foreign Office seems concerned:

The UK embassy has been employing a settler. A full investigation is required. Who knew about this and when? Settlements are a war crime and the UK supposedly opposes them. Are there embassy officials in settlements? https://t.co/potKTgJX7y

— Chris Doyle (@Doylech) November 8, 2025

Now, the Foreign Office has stonewalled the Guardian.

Foreign Office employs an Israeli settler

On 8 November, the National reported that a “long-time employee” at the Tel Aviv embassy owned a property in an illegal West Bank settlement. Gila Ben-Yakov Phillips is the employee in question, with 16 years experience at the embassy. Phillips bought her settlement property in 2022, with the UK government sanctioning the organisation which built it in 2024.

While Phillips bought the property before the sanctions, the settlements were obviously controversial way before 2022, and were considered illegal under international law. In 2019, Amnesty summarised the conventions which the settlements break:

As the occupier, Israel is therefore forbidden from using state land and natural resources for purposes other than military or security needs or for the benefit of the local population. The unlawful appropriation of property by an occupying power amounts to “pillage”, which is prohibited by both the Hague Regulations and Fourth Geneva Convention and is a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and many national laws.

Israel’s building of settlements in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem, does not respect any of these rules and exceptions. Transferring the occupying power’s civilians into the occupied territory is prohibited without exception. Furthermore, as explained earlier, the settlements and associated infrastructure are not temporary, do not benefit Palestinians and do not serve the legitimate security needs of the occupying power. Settlements entirely depend on the large-scale appropriation and/or destruction of Palestinian private and state property which are not militarily necessary. They are created with the sole purpose of permanently establishing Jewish Israelis on occupied land.

The settlement linked to Phillips was built by Amana. In a press release announcing the sanctions, the UK government said that Amana:

has overseen the establishment of illegal outposts and provides funding and other economic resources for Israeli settlers involved in threatening and perpetrating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank

The image in the following tweet shows an Amana settlement:

Truly shocking that any diplomat incl a staff member at the British embassy in any way endorses or invests in an Israeli settlement – @EmilyThornberry is spot on https://t.co/TyK3ysOi9p

— Chris Doyle (@Doylech) November 20, 2025

While Phillips is Israeli, all embassy workers must obey UK sanctions for the purpose of security clearances. This has raised questions about the security vetting which takes place at the embassy.

Sanctions

As reported by the Guardian, Phillips must be paying Amana a monthly fee. This means the UK is sending money to a sanctioned organisation via Phillips.

Sanctions law specialist Sara Segneri said:

If I have a company and I am paying an employee knowing that that employee is then sending money to Vladimir Putin, that’s potentially a sanctions violation,” said Segneri. “If she is making payments to one of the settlements that is sanctioned then I think there could potentially be a violation [by the embassy].

I hope the embassy has [investigated], or is in the process of investigating, the moneys that they’re paying to this employee and whether she has funds that are then going to the settlements.

It goes against the meaning and intent of the sanctions programmes if UK government employees around the world are allowed to disregard sanctions or potentially utilise their personal income from the UK government to pay sanctioned entities.

It’s unclear what the government is doing to rectify this situation, as the Foreign Office refused to answer any of the Guardian’s questions.

Smotrich, meanwhile…

The story highlights the issue with having any embassy in Israel right now. The Israeli government encompasses figures like Bezalel Smotrich, as Charlie Jaay reported for the Canary in September this year:

Illegal settler Bezalel Smotrich, who is also Israel’s far-right Finance Minister and leader of the Religious Zionism Party, is a prominent figure advocating for expanding Israeli settlements and opposing Palestinian statehood.

On Wednesday 3 September, he held a press conference in occupied Jerusalem in which he outlined a highly controversial plan to illegally annex and occupy 82% of the occupied West Bank, which he referred to by the Jewish nationalist name of ‘Judea and Samaria’ in an attempt to historically and religiously legitimize annexation

While it may be possible to weed the settlers out of the embassy, we have no power to do the same thing for the Israeli government. As such, there is an argument to be made that we can’t have a normal relationship with Israel while it continues to expand its territories in violation of international law.

Featured image via UK Home Office