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The United Kingdom, France, Canada and other countries announced coordinated measures against Israeli settlements in the West Bank, as western nations sought to raise pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government even at the risk of provoking criticism from President Donald Trump.
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Britain will ban the import of goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied territories through a new sanctions regime, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told the House of Commons on Tuesday. That will also include measures against individuals and companies that provide services such as financing and construction, he said.
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“The British government agrees there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the West Bank,” Miliband said. “We will not acquiesce to the destruction of the two-state solution,” he added. The Israeli government denies accusations of ethnic cleansing.
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French foreign affairs minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in a post on X that France would join the measures announced by Britain, while Miliband said Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Portugal and Sweden would also join the action.
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Miliband is seeking to differentiate Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s new administration from that of Keir Starmer, saying the preceding Labour premier’s government had not done “enough” to call out Israel over its war in Gaza. Lawmakers in the left-leaning governing party have long called for a tougher stance against the Israeli the government.
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Even so, Miliband sought to take a balanced approach, repeatedly referring to his own Jewish heritage — he is descended from holocaust survivors — and backing Israel’s right to exist and defend itself. He also condemned Hamas and Iranian threats to the country and to Jews around the world. He said Britain’s intelligence and security relationship with Israel would not change.
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“Our argument is not with the people of Israel: our argument is with the conduct of its government,” he said. “We refuse to be bystanders to further suffering.”
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