Israeli “terrorists” are conducting ethnic cleansing in the West Bank with the tacit backing of the government, the UK foreign secretary, Ed Miliband has said, as he announced sweeping sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements. In the strongest condemnation ever issued by the UK government, Miliband said the government would now take the official position that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank was unlawful in its entirety, saying such acknowledgment was “the least the people who face such suffering deserve. And it should be the prelude to justice.” After Miliband spoke, the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Saar, announced a suite of measures in response, including the closure of the UK consulate in Jerusalem.
Saar accused Miliband of “outrageous lies” and said the UK government was “systematically working against the state of Israel”. Miliband said the UK government would enact: An import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories. A comprehensive sanctions regime against providing services such as construction or financing for Israeli settlements.
A ban on the advertising in the UK of illegal settlement properties. Personal sanctions against key individuals accused of promoting settler violence. A new ban for arms licences and other exports that “materially contribute to the occupation”.
The UK is among 12 countries that said on Tuesday they would impose sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank. They include Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden. Miliband said the action would show that “Britain is not silent in the face of deep injustice and nor is it powerless”.
In an emotional statement, he described the agony he had heard from Palestinians in the West Bank whose homes had been destroyed and from doctors in Gaza who had seen children dying waiting for medical treatment. The UK’s actions have been made increasingly urgent by Israel’s plans to expand the E1 settlement project east of Jerusalem, which could in effect cut off the north from the south of the West Bank, threatening the viability of any future Palestinian state. Miliband said those who financed or facilitated illegal settlements would “face the full force of UK sanctions” and that he expected the legislation to enforce the trade ban and sanctions to be in place within nine months.
He stopped short of describing Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide, saying the UK would wait for the determination of the international courts. Speaking in the Commons on Tuesday, Miliband said: “The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists. I recognise the gravity of saying this, but the truth is the least the people who face such suffering deserve.
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