{"id":498507,"date":"2026-06-18T05:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T05:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/498507\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T05:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T05:18:09","slug":"london-israel-real-estate-fair-apologizes-over-west-bank-listings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/498507\/","title":{"rendered":"London Israel real estate fair apologizes over West Bank listings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Organizers of the Great Israeli Real Estate Event held in London on Sunday have apologized amid revelations that the event showcased offerings in the West Bank, contradicting their assurances that it would not.<\/p>\n

The owner of a real estate agency that had a booth at the event, meanwhile, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that she had obscured the name of a city in the West Bank from a poster but also passed \u201ctwo flyers under the table\u201d to attendees who expressed interest in properties in contested areas of Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the event, the organizers, along with the synagogue that hosted the event and the Board of Deputies of British Jews, publicly rejected claims by pro-Palestinian activists that properties beyond Israel\u2019s internationally recognized borders would be promoted.<\/p>\n

They had faced sharp pressure over the claims from dozens of British lawmakers and the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and had to find a new space after the venue that was initially set to host the event pulled out abruptly.<\/p>\n

Organizers apologize after revelations<\/p>\n

Following a protest outside the synagogue where the event took place, the Board of Deputies\u2019 acting president, Adam Cohen, said the event organizers had \u201cpublicly refuted claims that it was marketing real estate over the Green Line\u201d separating Israel from the West Bank and alleged that the claims were being used to justify antisemitism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"PEOPLEPEOPLE ATTEND a rally of Jewish community groups, including Campaign Against Antisemitism and Stop the Hate UK, calling for action to ”extinguish antisemitism”, outside Downing Street in London, Britain, May 10, 2026. (credit: REUTERS\/CARLOS JASSO)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe false pretenses seem to be little more than an excuse to harass and intimidate members of the Jewish community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Board of Deputies declined to comment on the subsequent revelations that West Bank properties were advertised at the event.<\/p>\n

But the organizers, who have staged similar events in the United States, issued a statement to the UK’s Jewish News that both apologized for mentions of East Jerusalem settlements in a brochure distributed at the event and rejected the idea that British Jews should face constraints in where they are offered property.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would like to re-emphasize that the venue made it clear to us that we were not in any way to promote the sale of Israeli real estate over the Green Line, and all participating vendors agreed to abide by that requirement,\u201d the statement said. \u201cAt the same time, we believe it is outrageous that in this day and age, anyone would seek to deny British Jews the right to purchase property anywhere in the world, whether in Paris, New York, or Israel<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement also described social media claims that \u201cstolen Palestinian land\u201d was being sold at the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese allegations are simply untrue. No one at the event promoted or spoke about properties in the \u2018disputed territories\u2019, such as Givat Zeev or Kfar Eldad,\u201d two East Jerusalem settlements, the statement continued. \u201cTheir mention in the event brochure was made in error, for which we apologize.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flyers advertised West Bank properties<\/p>\n

The revelations came after attendees photographed flyers promoting West Bank settlements and posted them on social media.<\/p>\n

The Guardian reported that it had obtained brochures from the event advertising properties not just in Givat Ze\u2019ev and Kfar Eldad but also in Ma\u2019ale Adumim and Teneh Omarim in the West Bank, and Ramat Eshkol and Givat Hamatos in East Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Guy Zilberman, a member of the pro-Palestinian group Jewish Anti-Zionist Action, posted a video showing footage from inside the event where he received brochures from companies selling homes in several of those locations. He said a salesman \u201cdirectly offered us properties in \u2018Judea and Samaria,\u2019\u201d the Israeli term for the West Bank.<\/p>\n

The footage showed Zilberman then revealing himself in a conference room and denouncing the event while exhorting attendees in Hebrew not to steal, before being removed by security.<\/p>\n

An unnamed member of Jewish Anti-Zionist<\/a> Action told Sky News, \u201cI visited Tivuch Shelly\u2019s stall and was given a leaflet advertising properties in Ma\u2019ale Adumim, which is an illegal West Bank settlement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legal questions and settlement sales<\/p>\n

The locations cited highlight the complexity of Israel\u2019s geography and the pressures facing those trying to sell property in the region.<\/p>\n

The UK considers expansions of Israeli settlements a violation of international law, posing potential legal challenges to efforts to sell homes there. The United States does not consider the settlements illegal, making real estate events there less vulnerable to legal scrutiny even as they have drawn fierce protests.<\/p>\n

Settlements within the municipality of Jerusalem, such as Ramat Eshkol and Givat Hamatos, pose another wrinkle. While Israel recognizes that the West Bank is disputed territory, it does not consider any part of Jerusalem as such. East Jerusalem was incorporated into the state in 1980, and under Israeli law, both West and East Jerusalem form the state’s complete and undivided capital.<\/p>\n

Ma\u2019ale Adumim, meanwhile, is a city of approximately 40,000 that is located in the West Bank and has long been seen as likely to remain under Israeli control if a Palestinian state is created through negotiations in the future.<\/p>\n

Tivuch Shelly\u2019s owner and founder, Shelly Levine, told JTA in a phone interview that her company never actively promoted properties in Ma\u2019ale Adumim at the event. She said the words \u201cMa\u2019ale Adumim\u201d were covered up with tape on their booth.<\/p>\n

But she said they gave out \u201ctwo flyers under the table\u201d with Ma\u2019ale Adumim properties because the company had received emails in advance of the event from people who said they were specifically looking for properties in that area.<\/p>\n

She said she did not recall the names of the people but said she had handed over the brochures \u201cin a bag and we told them they were not allowed to take them out or look at them in this building because we are not selling Ma\u2019ale Adumim at this event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levine said she now believes those emails were \u201ca setup\u201d to trick her into sharing incriminating material that could be handed to the media.<\/p>\n

Unless people went to Tivuch Shelly\u2019s website, Levine said, \u201cNobody would know that we advertise in Ma\u2019ale Adumim. We did not break our word to the event organizers; we posted no brochures, put nothing out on our tables.\u201d<\/p>\n

Protests, arrests and government scrutiny<\/p>\n

Even before the revelations, the lead-up to the event had been fraught for weeks, with the original venue pulling out of hosting less than 48 hours before Edgware Synagogue agreed to host it. And while the venue remained secret until less than 24 hours before the event, almost 1,000 demonstrators showed up outside the synagogue, from both the pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel camps.<\/p>\n

Despite police being deployed to the scene to keep the groups separate, 14 people were arrested, including seven pro-Israel and six pro-Palestinian supporters, for offenses including violent disorder, assault, and public-order offenses.<\/p>\n

More than 100 members of parliament and peers wrote to Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper ahead of the event, calling on her to halt the event because selling properties in the West Bank is a violation of international law.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Cooper told members of Parliament that the government had asked a national regulator to look into complaints connected to both the advertising of the event and promotional material.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have asked the authority to urgently look into the matter and reassure us that, if there is any evidence of the advertising or promotion of property in illegal settlements at that event or any others, it will uphold the law, regulations and guidance that apply,\u201d Cooper said in response to a question from a local lawmaker about why the government had allowed the Great Israeli Real Estate Event to go on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is extremely important that those standards are met in the UK, and that is exactly why we have raised the matter so seriously with the Advertising Standards Authority,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

That was not enough for Zack Polanski<\/a>, the anti-Zionist Jewish leader of the Green Party, who sent a letter later on Tuesday to Khan demanding action, including from London\u2019s police force.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis needs to be escalated to the Metropolitan Police Service immediately,\u201d Polanski wrote. \u201cAnything less fails to reflect the seriousness of the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Organizers of the Great Israeli Real Estate Event held in London on Sunday have apologized amid revelations that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[111,97363,85,46,43,1299],"class_list":["post-498507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-antisemitism","tag-british-jews","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}