Palestinian campaigners yesterday welcomed the passing of a motion by the Royal Institute of British Architects council calling for the suspension of Israeli architects over illegal settlement building.

The motion asked the International Union of Architects (UIA), as the international guardian of professional and ethical standards in architecture, to suspend the Israeli Association of United Architects (IAUA).

It stated that IAUA must be suspended until it acted to resist projects on illegally-occupied land and observed international law and accords.

The motion passed with 23 for, 16 against and 10 abstentions.

It recognised that IAUA had paid no regard to the UIA resolution 13 of 2005 and 2009, which condemned "development projects and the construction of buildings on land that has been ethnically purified or illegally appropriated," or which are based on "regulations that are ethnically or culturally discriminatory."

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign's Sarah Colborne said: "The Fourth Geneva Convention forbids the transfer of civilian populations into occupied territory and settlement building is a war crime.

"International solidarity action is urgently needed. Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank increased by more than 123 per cent in 2013 as compared to 2012, according to new data published by the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics.

"So the position taken by the Royal Institute of British Architects is not only very principled, but is extremely important."