London Travel Expo to Host Israeli Agency Tied to East Jerusalem Settlement Expansion

World Travel Market London opens on 3 November with an Israeli government tourism stand that includes iTravelJerusalem, a promotional platform managed by the Jerusalem Development Authority, according to WTM's own event listing cited by Middle East Eye.

The JDA is a statutory agency run jointly by the Israeli government and the Jerusalem municipality. It is not a marketing shell. According to a 2025 report by the Office of the European Union Representative for the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the agency planned the eviction of the Umm Haroun compound, home to roughly 40 Palestinian families, to make way for a 320-unit settlement in Sheikh Jarrah.

The BDS movement made a similar accusation in 2020, stating that the JDA "illegally expropriates Palestinian land in occupied East Jerusalem for the development of so-called Biblical parks" and has been "instrumental in the expansion of illegal settlements in East Jerusalem, such as Gilo."

The agency's footprint extends beyond those two cases. In 2020 the Israeli government approved a JDA cable car project in Jerusalem's Old City that requires uprooting trees and displacing water, sewage and telecommunications infrastructure. Four foreign companies withdrew from the project amid local opposition, but it is proceeding and continues to be promoted. The Israeli NGO Emek Shaveh said the project's "central motivation is to consolidate the settlers' hold" over the area "as part of an effort to displace Palestinians from the Historic Basin."

"This project threatens the Palestinian communities and the timeless landscape of Jerusalem's historic core," Emek Shaveh said.

The JDA is also pursuing a housing project next to the Palestinian community of Beit Safafa and promoting the renovation of the Mamilla Pool site, which critics say threatens a centuries-old Muslim cemetery.

Israel's stand at WTM London is shared with Africa Israel Hotels, a company previously part of the Africa Israel Group, which Middle East Eye reports has been involved in multiple settlement projects in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

A government pledge, untested

The listing lands months after a parallel controversy. In June the British government referred London's Great Israeli Real Estate Event to the advertising regulator following Middle East Eye reporting that properties in illegal settlements were advertised there. By August, the regulator had opened no investigation.

In September, Foreign Secretary David Lammy's successor Ed Miliband told Parliament: "Earlier this year, shamefully, just a few miles from here, we saw an expo advertising illegal settlement land. We must and we will ensure that that never happens again, so we will ban the advertising in the UK of illegal settlements."

The pledge has not yet produced a rule, and WTM London's listing suggests the gap between promise and enforcement remains open. Britain formally recognized Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory as illegal last month. In 2010 the UK advertising regulator banned a separate Israeli tourism campaign for implying East Jerusalem was part of Israel, finding the ad "likely to mislead." WTM did not respond to Middle East Eye's request for comment before publication.