UK official says behavior of next Israeli government could affect scope of West Bank sanctions
Times of Israel · LC · trust 66/100
The scope of the United Kingdom’s newly announced sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in the West Bank could expand or narrow based on the actions of Israel’s next government, a British official told reporters Wednesday, without suggesting the measures could be abandoned altogether.
“The government has flexibility in how it implements these measures,” the official said on condition of anonymity, pointing to remarks by British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband that London “will judge a new Israeli government by its actions,” and saying technical details will be discussed by ministers over the next six to nine months before their expected implementation.
While London has set no specific conditions for reconsidering the measures, it broadly wants Israel to curb settlement expansion and settler violence, advance a political resolution with the Palestinians, and stop efforts to weaken or collapse the Palestinian Authority, the official said.
Israel is set to vote for a new Knesset on October 27, and recent polling suggests a deadlock between the right-wing bloc led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and an opposition bloc made up of several anti-Netanyahu parties, many of whom have vowed to crack down on settler violence in the West Bank. However, most surveys show that neither bloc is likely to reach the 61 seats in the Knesset needed to form a majority government.
The British official also said Israel had previously assured the UK, France and Germany that it would take no new steps on its E1 settlement project before the upcoming Israeli election, yet subsequently issued a housing tender set to close a week before the vote. He said this was one catalyst for Tuesday’s sanctions announcement.
While denouncing the sanctions and laying out Israeli countermeasures Tuesday, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar argued that E1’s advancement was “not a new decision,” as its formal approval was finalized in 2025 and the tender process had been underway for months.
The British official also criticized Israel’s countermeasure of removing British officials from the International Gaza Support Center in Kiryat Gat, saying that “all that the Israeli government has done in expelling our staff… is undermine efforts to implement [US President Donald Trump’s] 20-point plan [for Gaza.] That’s not a constructive response.”
Despite contacts between senior counterparts ahead of the sanctions decision, including Sa’ar and Miliband, Netanyahu has not spoken with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham since Burnham took office in late July, the official added.
The planned import ban will cover goods from Israeli settlements throughout the West Bank, including the Jordan Valley, the official said, though whether it will apply to more sensitive places such as Jewish areas in East Jerusalem and the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, for example, remains “undecided,” he said.
East Jerusalem is considered a disputed territory under international law and dozens of countries have recognized it as Palestinian territory and the capital of a future state. However, its status is different than the rest of the West Bank, as Israel formally annexed the area in 1980, 13 years after capturing the territory during the 1967 Six Day War.
Many of the dozens of Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem are, in practice, fully integrated neighborhoods of Jerusalem, which could further complicate the UK’s import ban.
Separately, the British official said that London plans to legislate for discretionary sanctions against companies, organizations and individuals supporting, constructing or financing “the settlement project,” saying that rather than automatically covering every business connected to settlements, ministers will choose whom to designate and could exempt entities such as Israeli banks.
The official also confirmed that Israel has formally instructed the UK to close its East Jerusalem consulate within 30 days, saying it employs around 20 British diplomats and 60 local staff.
This was echoed by two Israeli officials, who said Wednesday that London had been given one month to close the consulate, which represents Britain in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza on Palestinian issues. Israel also barred 12 British politicians from visiting the country, told British officials and diplomats in the Palestinian territories to leave, and said Britain can no longer train Palestinian security forces in the West Bank.
UK premier Burnham stood by the move in an address to lawmakers in parliament on Wednesday, saying that the sanctions demonstrate Britain’s “leadership on the world stage.”
Burnham, who has been in the job since July, said Britain had long endorsed the two-state solution in the Middle East, but words needed to be backed by action.
“Leadership is about taking action where there is injustice, where we need to correct unfairness, people being driven out of their homes,” he said. “In this difficult and dangerous world, Britain has to stand for something.”
“We will always stand with the underdog and take what action we can to support them,” he said.
“That is leadership on the world stage, Britain being true to what it has always been about,” he said to cheers from his lawmakers.
The UK ban on dealings with West Bank settlements comes amid soaring settler violence against Palestinians on a near-daily basis — an issue that the British government said it views as amounting to “ethnic cleansing of Palestinians… perpetrated by settler terrorists.”
Arrests of Israelis involved in these attacks are rare, and critics have accused the government of condoning or even encouraging the violence.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank, settler business owners said the sanctions would dent their revenues, and at least one said they could force him to close his date farm and harm his Palestinian employees.
Yaakov Berg, head of the Psagot Winery near the Palestinian city of Ramallah, said Britain made up a big market for the winery, which exports…
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