Britain has backed down from a previous stand that it is important to keep up communication with Jewish Israeli citizens in Judea and Samaria (Yesha), and it has blacklisted them from events at the embassy. Three Israeli citizens from areas beyond the 1949-1967 border recently were invited to attend an embassy birthday party at the ambassador's house in honor of the birthday of Queen Elizabeth. Senior Palestinian Authority (PA) negotiator Saeb Erekat protested, saying that "the settlements are illegal and the European policy has not changed. To invite the [representatives of] settlements to parties--I think the British government should answer this question." A spokesman for the embassy replied, "In a way, it's very important for us to hear from them what's going on in the settlements." Last September, British Ambassador Tom Phillips began a campaign to build ties with Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. British officials explained that the embassy had not changed its political stance regarding Jewish communities in Yesha, but wanted to build a relationship with local Jewish leaders. However, British Member of Parliament Crispin Blunt also complained about the Jewish Israelis participating in an official function, and the embassy quickly changed its tune. MP Blunt, a pro-Arab legislator who works closely with Arab lobbies, wrote the Foreign Office that inviting people from Judea and Samaria indicates a "weakening in the government’s long-held position that settlements were illegal and an obstacle to peace. Entertaining the pioneers of this colonization movement has given the strong impression that Britain tacitly endorses it or no longer objects to it." The Foreign Office promised MP Blunt that the Israeli citizens from Judea and Samaria would not grace any more official embassy functions. It was not clear if the ban includes French Hill, Gilo and other suburban Jerusalem neighborhoods that Britain considers to be settlements. Yehuda HaKohen of the Zionist Freedom Alliance commented on MP Blunt's statement saying that the only colonization movement in the region is the one set on establishing a Palestinian state on Israeli soil: “Peace will not be achieved by shrinking or weakening Israel. Nor could it be reached through creating an artificial foreign state on Jewish land. In truth, the Oslo process and the expulsion [of Jews] from Gaza only drove the Jewish and Arab peoples further apart. Peace will only be possible when the indigenous Jews and the local Arabs come together on the grassroots level and genuinely try to understand one another. The Western powers need to stop pushing their neo-colonialist agenda in the Middle East and leave both native populations alone.”