Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has accused the Israeli Government of turning a blind eye to the "ethnic cleansing of Palestinians" in the West Bank as he announced an import ban on goods from illegal settlements.
In a statement to MPs, Mr Miliband said for the first time that the British Government regards the occupation of the West Bank as "unlawful". Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, but numbers have risen sharply in recent years.
New measures against settlements
The import ban covers produce exported from illegal Israeli settlements, including dates, mangoes, avocados, grapes, herbs, olive oil and kosher wine. The UK will also impose sanctions on companies and individuals providing services such as infrastructure, financing or real estate for the expansion of settlements.
Arms licences that contribute to the occupation will be refused, and advertising for illegal settlements in the UK will be banned.
Some 770,000 settlers live in the occupied Palestinian territories, compared with around 270,000 at the time of the Oslo peace accords in 1993. More settlements have been approved in the last four years than in the past two decades.
E1 settlement and ethnic cleansing accusation
Mr Miliband accused Benjamin Netanyahu's government of crossing a red line with the E1 settlement, plans for 1,200 homes put out to tender by Israel's housing ministry last month, covering 4.6 square miles beyond East Jerusalem.
Last year, Israel's far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said the idea "finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state".
The Foreign Secretary said: "Let's be clear what this means: the creation of a set of facts on the ground to make the two state solution unviable. And on top of official state policy, settler terrorism is rampant. The UN reports an average of six violent settler attacks against Palestinians per day this year, the highest on record."
He went on: "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."
Reaction from US and Israel
Prime Minister Andy Burnham is understood to have informed Donald Trump of the plans in a call on Monday night, where No10 said the PM "stressed the importance of a two-state solution". The 25-minute phone call was described as warm and constructive.
But on Tuesday, Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, warned the US could issue reprisals against the UK and accused the Government of being gripped by "Jew hatred". He said he was aware that the Foreign Secretary is Jewish when he made the remarks.
"I feel like it's discrimination against the Israeli government. It's a discrimination against the Jewish people," he told the BBC's Today programme. Mr Huckabee added: "I also would tell you that I don't know if they have thought it through. It's like throwing a stone and not having an idea of where it's going to land. And I realise, look, the UK is a sovereign country; they can do what they want, but so is the US."
Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar also warned: "If Britain acts against Israel, Israel will act against Britain."
Pat McFadden said the move was designed to protect the prospect of a two-state solution, and the sanctions would be targeted. Dame Emily Thornberry, chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said the UK must challenge Israel's plans to expand illegal settlements into the West Bank.
Mr Burnham signalled he would change the UK's approach shortly before he became Prime Minister, when he apologised for Labour's initial response to the war in Gaza. As Mayor of Greater Manchester, he called for a ceasefire in 2023, but said the Government had been too slow to demand an end to the fighting. He told MPs last week that the E1 settlement, which would effectively separate the West Bank from East Jerusalem, could "imperil" or "end" the prospect of a two-state solution.
