WCC News: WCC urges international community to confront destructive trajectory of settlement plans in Palestine

World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, in a comment on plans to build some 3,400 homes in a controversial settlement project in the E1 area in the occupied West Bank, urged a halt to the trajectory of illegal settlements.  An olive tree grows in front of an Israeli settlers house in the area of Tel Rumeida, Hebron, West Bank. Photo: Albin Hillert/WCC 19 August 2025 “Such settlements are prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention and, as well as being illegal, are unjust, incompatible with peace, antithetical to the legitimate interests of the State of Israel, an obstacle to a two-state solution and to the establishment of a viable Palestinian state – as affirmed by UN Security Council resolution 2334 (2016),” said Pillay. “Over many years, calls by the WCC and by many others in the international community for a freeze on all settlement construction and expansion, as a first step towards the dismantlement of all illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, have been unheeded.” Pillay also urged people to understand that such plans are deliberate efforts to thwart and frustrate belated initiatives by members of the international community to recognize the State of Palestine and to reanimate the two-state solution.  “The WCC urges all responsible members of the international community to confront and reverse this destructive trajectory being charted by the government of Israel, and urges all WCC member churches to scale up their advocacy and action for a just peace for all people in the region – Israelis and Palestinians, Jews, Muslims, and Christians – founded on recognition of the equal human rights and inherent God-given dignity of all,” the statement concludes. WCC comment on E1 area settlement plans announced by Minister Bezalel Smotrich See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland