Britain will introduce an import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories and prohibit arms exports to those settlements, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced on Tuesday. The government also plans sanctions against companies and individuals involved in services that support settlement expansion.
The measures mark a further tightening of the centre-left Labour Party government's policy on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The United Kingdom recognised Palestinian statehood last year and has previously sanctioned some Israeli settlers and illegal outposts over violence against Palestinians and illegal development in the West Bank.
Miliband said businesses and individuals providing construction, infrastructure, financing or real-estate services for settlement expansion would be targeted. Those financing or facilitating illegal settlement would “face the full force of UK sanctions”, he said. The government has yet to identify the companies and individuals affected or say when the measures will take effect.
Britain acted alongside Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. The 12 countries backed restrictions on trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and confirmed that they intended to introduce national restrictions, support European restrictions, or pursue both approaches, on trade in goods from settlements illegal under international law.
Canada and France will also announce bans on goods from illegal Israeli settlements. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Portugal and Sweden said they would support further action.
Miliband presented the British decision as a move from condemnation to enforcement. The UK could no longer simply “call out” injustice and suffering and instead had to “act” against settlement expansion, he said.
“Today we refuse to be bystanders to further suffering and to the destruction of the two-state solution,” Miliband said. He also said that “settler terrorism was rampant” in the West Bank and accused the Israeli government of turning a “blind eye” to what he called “ethnic cleansing” by settlers there.
Israel responded with measures directed at Britain. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Israel would close Britain's consulate in occupied East Jerusalem that is accredited to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
Saar said the UK would also be excluded from the US-led coordination mission for Gaza. British training of Palestinian Authority forces in the West Bank would end, he said, and some elected UK officials and other nationals would be barred from entering Israel. The full scope of the proposed entry restrictions was not specified.
The exchange exposes a sharp deterioration in relations between the two governments. Britain has set out trade, arms and targeted sanctions measures aimed at settlement-linked activity, while Israel has announced steps affecting British diplomatic, security and official engagement.
The US has warned of economic consequences related to the UK's sanctions. It remains unclear whether those consequences will follow, what form they could take, and whether other major Western allies will join the restrictions. The longer-term effect on settlement expansion and on efforts to preserve a two-state solution is also unknown.
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