Britain's new government will announce in coming weeks a package of economic sanctions and other measures against Israeli West Bank settlements, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told the House of Commons on Tuesday. The measures will include a ban on goods produced in the settlements and targeted sanctions on British institutions and individuals involved in their development. Miliband called for "a comprehensive reset of our policy" on the occupied West Bank.
"We do not want British companies financing, constructing, or advertising new settlements," Miliband said. He added that the government was reviewing its wider economic relationship with the occupied territories to determine what tools could be deployed against settlement expansion.
Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar responded with a warning on Tuesday that the Jewish state would take retaliatory steps if Britain acted against it. "If they do, there will be a reaction," Sa'ar said in a podcast interview with the Hebrew news website Ynet.
The announcement comes after Israel's Lands Authority opened bids in August for 1,234 homes in the E1 section of Ma'aleh Adumim settlement, which Miliband said would undermine a two-state solution. The International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion in 2024 stating that such construction in Area C of the West Bank, where all Israeli settlements are located, is illegal. Israel says it has a right to build in Area C, which is under Israeli military and civilian control.
Miliband said the E1 project had long been considered a "red line" because it "cuts through the heart of the West Bank and risks making a Palestinian state unviable." The Palestinian Authority and the international community have warned that expanding the settlement would block contiguous Palestinian development in the area.
