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The UK, France and Canada announced that they will ban imports of goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, drawing immediate retaliation from Israel against the UK.
Getting into it: The announcement was made on Tuesday, with nine other countries signing on to a joint foreign ministers’ statement citing what they called unprecedented settler violence and settlement expansion.
UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said, “The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists. … 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.” He said the UK will sanction companies and individuals that build, bankroll or broker property in the settlements, ban the advertising of settlement homes, and block weapons exports that feed the occupation.
Israel hit back within two hours. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced the closure of the British consulate in East Jerusalem, which serves as the UK’s diplomatic channel to the Palestinian Authority, the expulsion of British representatives from the international body overseeing the Gaza ceasefire, the end of UK participation in the US-led Gaza coordination mission, and an entry ban on 12 Britons, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. He added, “The accusations made today by the foreign secretary in the British parliament were outrageous lies.” He also warned, “Whoever acts against Israel, Israel will act against them, and they will lose their influence and relevance in the region.”
What led to all this was “E1,” the settlement project on 4.5 square miles east of Jerusalem that would cut East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel, off from the West Bank and run straight through territory Palestinians have long claimed for their own state. The plan calls for seven residential compounds and roughly 1,200 housing units, with contractors given until Oct. 19 to bid. Israel also greenlit 1,000 additional homes elsewhere in the West Bank the same day.
This all comes as the US has declined to join the ban. In a statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “We were made aware that they were going to make this decision. We heard their argument as to why, but look, we share the goal of stability. We don’t want to see some uptick in violence or an uptick in conflict or tensions in the West Bank at a very tenuous time in the region.”
