UK expected to announce sanctions on Israeli settlements in West Bank

LONDON: Britain's government was set on Tuesday (Sep 8) to announce sanctions on trade from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, a minister indicated, sparking an angry backlash from Israel and the United States.

The move would signal a toughening of the UK's stance on Israel under new Labour Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who entered Downing Street in July after Keir Starmer stepped down.

But it immediately caused friction with allies the US and Israel, with America's ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee calling the decision "irrational" and Israel threatening retaliatory action.

The move follows weeks of increasing attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian villages in the illegally occupied territory that some western governments fear threatens the two-state solution.

Government minister Pat McFadden said Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband would make a statement to parliament laying out "measures specifically targeted at the expansion of these settlements, which are illegal under international law in the West Bank".

He told Sky News that the changes, on which he provided no further detail, would be motivated by "the idea of keeping alive this possibility of seeing a Palestinian state alongside Israel".

"I think it's also important to say that Israel is an important trading partner for the UK. This isn't intended to be a boycott of all Israeli goods," McFadden added.

UK government ministers have suggested recently that goods coming out of the illegal settlements could be subject to trade restrictions as part of the changes.

Trade between the UK and the Occupied Palestinian Territories was around only £38 million (US$51 million) in 2025, according to the government, implying the move could be largely symbolic.

Critics have also said it could be difficult to distinguish goods from the West Bank from those from the rest of Israel.

Miliband, son of Jewish refugees to Britain, vowed last Tuesday to announce a "comprehensive" reset of policy towards Israel.

He said the so-called E1 development plan for more than 1,200 homes greenlighted by Israel last year was "the crossing of a red line, as it cuts through the heart of the West Bank and risks making a Palestinian state unviable".

"DISCRIMINATION"

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue establishing the illegal settlements despite mounting international pressure, promising a major wave of settler immigration into the occupied Palestinian territory.

Some of the violence by settlers in recent weeks had drawn rare condemnation from Netanyahu and unusually strong criticism from Huckabee, as well as more typical critics in European capitals.

But commenting on Britain's move, Huckabee told BBC Radio on Tuesday: "I feel like it's discrimination against the Israeli government. It's a discrimination against the Jewish people."

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who leads a far-right party that advocates the annexation of the entire West Bank, called for the expulsion of Britain's ambassador to Israel.

And Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the sanctions would "fall on the wrong side of history".

Burnham has said that Starmer was too soft on Israel, which faced under intense international criticism over its relentless offensive that flattened much of Gaza following the Oct 7, 2023, Hamas attack.

Starmer's government did, however, announce sanctions on six entities and one person "involved in financing, enabling and carrying out settler violence" as part of a set of measures in coordination with a handful of other Western countries.

In September last year, Starmer also announced that Britain was formally recognising a Palestinian state, marking a historic shift in decades of British foreign policy.

More than 500,000 Israelis live in illegal settlements in the West Bank, among some three million Palestinians.

According to an AFP tally based on data from the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli forces or settlers have killed at least 1,105 Palestinians in the territory since the start of the Gaza war.

In July, Ireland's parliament approved legislation banning imports of goods from the settlements.