LONDON/TEL AVIV: Britain announced on Tuesday an import ban on goods produced in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, acting alongside France and Canada in the latest step to pressure Israel amid deepening diplomatic isolation.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told the House of Commons that London could no longer merely “call out” injustice but must “act” against settlement expansion. “Today we refuse to be bystanders to further suffering and to the destruction of the two-state solution,” he said, reaffirming support for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, a vision Jerusalem rejects, as reported by Arab News.
The move drew swift criticism. The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, called it “discrimination against the Jewish people” and warned it could hurt British firms in US states that bar boycotts of Israel. In Jerusalem, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urged the expulsion of Britain’s ambassador, while National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to shut the British consulate in East Jerusalem. President Isaac Herzog accused London of meddling in Israel’s late-October elections.
Miliband said the West Bank occupation is unlawful and warned of “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians in parts of the territory. The ban’s economic impact is expected to be small: settlement exports are mostly farm produce and wine, a sliver of Israel’s trade. Still, it remains unclear how customs officials will tell settlement goods from those made inside Israel.
Tensions have mounted over Israel’s E1 settlement plan near Jerusalem, which would slice through land Palestinians need for a future state. On Tuesday, Smotrich advanced plans for 1,000 new homes in two other West Bank settlements.
The UN, Palestinians and most nations view settlements as illegal; Israel disagrees. In 2025, Britain joined a wave of recognitions of Palestinian statehood and in June sanctioned Israeli groups linked to violence in the occupied territories. Miliband noted that Britain, France and Canada are now aligning with the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain and Norway, which have banned or plan to ban settlement goods.
