Israel has bridled at British foreign secretary Ed Miliband’s accusation of “ethnic cleansing” against Palestinians in the “illegally occupied” West Bank. But ethnic cleansing is what it is.
Last month Israel announced contracts for tenders for the building of 1,200 Jewish housing units in the West Bank’s E1 area. Meanwhile, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that so far this year Israeli troops (IDF) and illegal settlers had demolished 1,078 Palestinian homes and displaced over 4,000 people across the West Bank. There have been over 1,400 settler attacks against Palestinians this year.
The E1 settlement project would forcibly displace over 18 more Bedouin communities in the area and in effect divide the West Bank in two. It would thus make the establishment of an independent contiguous Palestinian state impossible.
This is not just another of the 104 new settlements approved by the country’s government since taking office, but a qualitative stepping up of attempts to rule out a two-state solution and to advance a creeping annexation of the West Bank.
Miliband’s welcome announcement last week of a UK ban on trade in goods from the occupied territories and sanctions against those abetting settlement expansions echoes previous moves by Ireland and Spain, and was joined by a total of 12 states, including France and Canada. The EU as a whole should follow suit, as Kaja Kallas , its foreign policy chief, said in an interview with The Irish Times.
Milliband rightly described settler violence, often encouraged by ministers, passively overseen by the IDF, and assisted with government cash, as terrorist in nature. He also committed to recognition of a 2024 opinion of the International Court of Justice deeming the Israeli occupation illegal.
The willingness of more countries to break with the US over Israel is an important moment that will further isolate the government of prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu internationally, ahead of vital elections next month.