UK Threatens Sanctions on Firms Linked to Israeli Settlements in West Bank

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband warned companies and individuals against taking part in construction linked to illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Globes reported that Miliband spoke on Monday at the Labour Party conference, which the report described as the place where the government had planned to restart its policy towards Israel.

According to Globes, Miliband said the UK would ban the import of goods from illegal settlements and would disrupt the supply lines of British finance, British construction and British services for those settlements. The report said sanctions could apply to any entity providing services for settlement expansion beyond the Green Line, which it said could be a huge problem for Israel’s banks. Globes also reported that Miliband criticized ethnic cleansing by settler terrorists in the West Bank and the evidence of war crimes in Gaza.

A separate report from Anadolu gave a different account of the measures. It said Miliband urged businesses and individuals not to proceed with bids for E1 construction tenders, citing the risk of involvement in serious breaches of international law. Anadolu reported that the UK government had created new powers to sanction individuals and companies engaged in building illegal settlements, including E1, and had committed to introducing legislation to ban goods imported from settlements and to act against services that finance or facilitate them. Globes described these steps as threatened, while Anadolu described powers already created and commitments already made.

Globes, citing The Jewish Chronicle, reported that the UK had extended its arms embargo on Israel, freezing thirty export licenses in the past and forbidding exports of a further 50 systems and weapons. The Globes report described a prolonged deterioration in UK-Israel relations over the past three years and said the British establishment had taken a clear stance on Israel’s side after the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023.

Anadolu reported that the British government condemned escalating violence by occupiers in the occupied West Bank. It said the recent attacks reportedly targeted officials from France, Belgium and Poland, a representative of the Catholic Church, and a US journalist. Speaking up for people who cannot defend themselves is a lesson this moment makes plain (Proverbs 31:8-9).

Miliband said the UK will not be a bystander in the destruction of the two-state solution. He also asserted that the British people do not want to support the construction of illegal settlements.