The UK government is preparing to impose sanctions on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, a minister has indicated, setting the stage for a move likely to provoke anger in Israel and the United States.
The announcement would mark a sharper UK approach to Israel under Labour Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who took office in July after Keir Starmer resigned.
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It follows weeks of escalating settler attacks on Palestinian villages across the occupied West Bank, violence that several Western governments fear could further undermine the prospect of a two-state solution.
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband would address parliament and outline “measures specifically targeted at the expansion of these settlements, which are illegal under international law in the West Bank”.
“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,” he added.
Palestinians inspect a home destroyed by the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank
UK ministers have recently indicated that goods produced in illegal settlements could face trade restrictions under the planned measures.
Mr Miliband, whose parents were Jewish refugees who came to the UK, promised last week to announce a “comprehensive” reset in policy towards Israel. He also condemned what he described as “appalling settler terrorism” in the occupied West Bank.
He has called Israel’s E1 development plan, which would create more than 1,200 homes and was approved by Israel last year, “the crossing of a red line”. The project, he said, cuts through the heart of the West Bank and risks making a future Palestinian state unviable.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.
UN Secretary General António Guterres has warned that the E1 plan represents an “existential threat” to the possibility of a geographically connected Palestinian state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue expanding the settlements despite growing international pressure, promising a major wave of immigration to the Palestinian territory.
Recent settler violence has drawn rare criticism from Mr Netanyahu, as well as unusually strong condemnation from US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and more familiar denunciations from European capitals.
Mr Huckabee described the proposed UK sanctions as “an irrational action” and accused Britain of “discrimination against the Jewish people”.
“This is an irrational action. That’s what I’m saying. I don’t understand what it’s supposed to achieve.
Attacks on Palestinian villages in the West Bank have intensified in recent weeks
“If the UK is really interested in dealing with issues they feel like are wrong, where are the sanctions against North Korea, China, Russia? Where are the sanctions against many other nations in the world?
“I feel like that it’s a discrimination against the Israeli government, it’s discrimination against the Jewish people and I don’t understand the rationale of it.”
He added: “And I realise, look, the UK is a sovereign country, they can do what they want, but so is the US.”
Mr McFadden rejected Mr Huckabee’s accusation of “Jew hate”.
Speaking to Sky News, he said: “I fundamentally reject that. When it comes to the Jewish community in the UK, this is a really important part of our society.
“I want Jewish people in the UK to be able to live their lives freely in education, in work, in worship, in all aspects of their lives, and I and every government minister would condemn any attacks on the Jewish community here in the UK.”
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog said the proposed action would “fall on the wrong side of history”.
“Later today, we expect to see headlines announcing certain British trade sanctions on Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria,” Mr Herzog said, using the biblical names for the West Bank.
“If this happens – and other nations may join – I believe it will prove to be a grave miscalculation, a decision that will fall on the wrong side of history.”
In September last year, then-prime minister Keir Starmer announced that the UK was formally recognising a Palestinian state, a decision that represented a historic shift in decades of British foreign policy.
At least 1,105 Palestinians, including militants and civilians, have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry data.
More than 500,000 Israelis live in illegal settlements across the Palestinian territory, alongside about three million Palestinians.
Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank today, according to the Palestinian health ministry. The Israeli military said the man was a suspect who had tried to attack troops.
The ministry identified the dead man as 28-year-old Abdul Karim Muhammad Khader Suleiman, saying he was “shot and killed by the occupation forces on Tuesday morning in the town of Aqraba”.
It said Israeli authorities were withholding his body.
Additional reporting PA
