Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon called British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg "irresponsible and ill-informed" for condemning Israeli settlements as "deliberate vandalism" of efforts to establish a Palestinian state.
Speaking during a visit by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in London, Clegg declared that Israel's continued settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem caused "immense damage" to the peace process.
"It is an act of deliberate vandalism to the basic premise on which negotiations have taken place for years and years and years," he added.
British media described Clegg’s remarks "some of the most critical language ever used by a senior European politician in government."
Clegg is leader of the centre-left Liberal Democrat party, the junior partner in the Conservative-led coalition government of Prime Minister David Cameron.
Danny Ayalon, who was also on a visit to the UK, said Clegg's comments "gave the Palestinians an excuse to set pre-conditions for entering negotiations with Israel that would create obstacles to moving forward with negotiations."
"I think it was unfortunate, I think it was gratuitous, I think it was ill-informed, I think it was somewhat irresponsible," Ayalon said during a conference at Chatham House, a London think tank.
Ayalon said Israel would not halt settlement construction as a condition for resuming full negotiations.
"The settlement issue is but one of many core elements of the conflict. I don't think it is the major one ... All those elements are inter-related and you cannot cherry-pick one and try to solve it irrespective of the others. All these issues should be on the table without pre-conditions," he told Reuters news agency.
Prime Minister David Cameron, who also met Abbas on Tuesday, appeared to support his deputy.
"We think that time, in some ways, is running out for the two-state solution unless we can push forward now, because otherwise the facts on the ground will make it more and more difficult, which is why the settlement issue remains so important," he said.