Home · World · Sep 8 archive
UK to Ban Trade with Israeli Settlements as PM Risks Clash with Trump
Confirmed
In Short: The UK will announce a trade ban on goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to reports.
The UK will announce a trade ban on goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, a government minister said, according to British media reports. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband is expected to present measures against the expansion of settlements to Parliament on Tuesday, as reported by Al Jazeera. "This isn’t intended to be a boycott of all Israeli goods," he told Sky News. The move follows weeks of escalating settler violence on Palestinian villages, some of which drew rare criticism from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee.
More than 140 Labour MPs have called for a ban on trade with Israeli firms operating in the occupied West Bank, with significant public support for the measure. In August, Israel opened bidding for 1,234 housing units in its controversial E1 project, a settlement plan that would link settlements in occupied East Jerusalem to the Maale Adumim settlement bloc in the West Bank. Palestinians have warned that advancing the plans would lead to confining Palestinians in the occupied West Bank to "disconnected enclaves surrounded by settlements," according to Al Jazeera. The UK government is to set out new restrictions on buying goods made in Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the BBC understands.
What's confirmed
What's still developing
- However, Netanyahu has previously said he will keep expanding illegal settlements, despite international pressure.
- Prime Minister Andy Burnham confirmed to Labour MPs at their weekly parliamentary meeting on Monday night that Miliband would be making the statement, according to a number of MPs present.
- Trump's ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told the BBC that the US - Israel's most powerful ally - would "without a doubt" respond to the expected sanctions, warning of a "huge economic impact on British businesses".
- Speaking in July, Stephen Doughty - who was then Europe minister but has since been appointed Middle East minister - told the business select committee that existing powers to impose restrictions on settlements did not go far enough.
- Speaking in his first address to Parliament as foreign secretary last week, Miliband said those plans were illegal under international law, and called them "the crossing of a red line, as it cuts through the heart of the West Bank and risks making a Palestinian state unviable".