BBC (“UK announces sanctions on West Bank settlements prompting furious Israeli response“):
The UK has announced sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, accusing Israel’s government of turning a blind eye to the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians by settlers.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the move marked the “beginning of a new approach” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which “not only calls out injustice and suffering but acts”.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar responded by accusing him of spreading an “outrageous lie” and announced counter-measures including shutting the UK’s consulate in East Jerusalem.
The UK sanctions will ban settlement goods but also act against companies and individuals providing services for settlement expansion.
The sanctions were launched alongside France and Canada, which in a joint statement with the UK said the action “marks a further turning point in our approach to protecting the two-state solution”.
Settlements are illegal under international law, and there has been a rise in violence towards Palestinians in the West Bank by settlers in recent months.
In a statement to MPs, Miliband said: “The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists.
“And all too often the Israeli government has turned a blind eye to this and worse, members of it have made statements and taken actions to support the forced displacement of Palestinians.”
He said ethnic cleansing was defined by the UN as a “purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent means another ethnic or religious group from certain areas”.
Miliband said the official view of the government was that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank was unlawful because of the “entrenchment of its control, its intention to extend permanent sovereignty, and its expansionist agenda via illegal settlements”.
He said this position, which is in line with a 2024 advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice, should be reflected in the UK’s “economic relationship” with the occupied West Bank.
Le Monde (“11 European countries and Canada sanction products from Israeli settlements in West Bank“):
A milestone was reached in relations between Israel and its European allies on Tuesday, September 8, with the joint announcement by the United Kingdom, France and nine European countries (Denmark, Spain, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Sweden), as well as Canada, of sanctions against products originating from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The implementation of these measures, which still needs to be defined by each country, resulted from the inability of the 27 member states of the European Union to agree on a joint action. Nonetheless, the announcement is significant. It signals a shift toward sanctioning all settlements – not just a handful of violent actors and organizations – while rejecting the gradual normalization on which Israel had long relied.
Reuters (“Israel tells Britain to close East Jerusalem consulate within 30 days, officials say“):
Israel has told Britain it must close its East Jerusalem consulate within a month, Israeli officials said on Wednesday, as a retaliatory step against sanctions that Britain, France and Canada have announced against settlements.
The sanctions are among the strongest collective actions taken by major Western allies of Israel over Israeli settlements, and have prompted intense pushback in Israel weeks before it holds a general election.
While the effect of the sanctions may be mostly symbolic, they highlight Israel’s growing isolation among countries it once counted as close allies over its war in Gaza and expansion of settlements in the West Bank. The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, a staunch supporter of Israel, has condemned the sanctions and accused the British government of “Jew hate”, but neither the White House nor the State Department issued strong criticism of the move.
Two Israeli officials and two other sources familiar with the matter said London had been given 30 days to close the consulate, which represents Britain in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza on Palestinian issues. Israel has also barred 12 British politicians from visiting the country, told British officials and diplomats in the West Bank and a Gaza coordination centre in Israel to leave, and said Britain can no longer train Palestinian security forces in the West Bank.
It has not yet announced actions against France or Canada, which joined Britain in saying they will halt trade with settlements, or against nine other countries that endorsed the UK sanctions. Although the UK sanctions were widely anticipated, Israeli parliamentary opposition leader Yair Lapid said on Tuesday that “no one knew” the other countries were going to endorse the move.
The rift between Israel and the West has been growing for decades, with the United States often serving as Israel’s only defender. It has become clear in the last several months that even US support is fragile, with young Democrats in particular vehemently opposed to Israeli policies. Lingering sympathy from the Holocaust—and even the horrific massacre of October 7, 2023—is exhausted in most quarters.
I see no prospect of this changing any time soon. Even if Netanyahu’s party is defeated (and the polls seem to show that as a strong possibility), there’s broad support in Israel for continuing to attack Hamas and to expand Jewish control of the West Bank and expelling the Arab population. I suspect sanctions will just strengthen their resolve.
