In a major policy shift, Britain expected to ban goods from Israeli settlements

In a major policy shift, Britain expected to ban goods from Israeli settlements Submitted by Imran Mulla on Tue, 09/08/2026 - 09:26 Tel Aviv threatens retaliation as ministers call for sanctions on Britain and expulsion of the UK ambassador to Israel Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham at 10 Downing Street in London on 2 September 2026 (AFP) Off The British government is set to announce a ban on goods from Israeli settlements on Tuesday, a move which has provoked fury from the Israeli government but remains highly popular in the UK. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband is expected to outline a raft of new measures on Israel in parliament in the early afternoon. A well-placed Labour source said on Monday that "the prime minister and foreign secretary are going to set out a comprehensive reset in the British government's approach" to the situation in Israel and Palestine . Middle East Eye revealed in August that Andy Burnham's government had decided to ban settlement goods. Whitehall sources have told MEE that the measures announced on Tuesday should be understood as the start of a new approach to foreign policy, and are expected to be followed by further measures. Burnham has not spoken to his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, since he became prime minister in July. He reportedly briefed President Donald Trump on his plans to introduce sanctions on Israel on Monday afternoon. The United States privately urged the British government not to go ahead with the measures, MEE understands. The ban is domestically popular, as new polling conducted by Opinium and published by the European Council on Foreign Relations shows that 46 percent of British adults support the ban on trade with Israeli settlements, while only 18 percent opposed it. That support rises to nearly three-quarters when people who did not have an opinion are excluded from the figures. The new measures come at a pivotal moment, as Israel's new E1 settlement project east of Jerusalem is poised to effectively cut the occupied West Bank in two. Britain’s settlement goods ban could therefore have a significant impact. As Ben Jamal, until recently the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, put it : "Such a ban has been a core demand of the Palestine solidarity movement for many years, as a key basic step towards ending UK complicity with Israel’s violations of international law." 'This sanction requires teeth' The Council for Arab-British Understanding's chair, MP Alistair Carmichael, welcomed the ban on Tuesday, saying: "A UK ban on settlement trade is welcome, but the minimum of what is needed in the face of a frenzy of settlement expansion. "This sanction requires teeth. Israel has to be held to account for its flagrant violations of international law, and hopefully this is the start." Analysis: Ed Miliband is becoming the UK's most formidable foreign secretary in decades Read More » Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on the occupied territories, said on Monday that a settlement trade ban must be part of "a true paradigm shift to Israel-Palestine that ultimately seeks to implement the International Court of Justice advisory opinion in 2024". Last week, the Israeli government threatened Britain with retaliation over the expected measures. "If Britain acts against Israel, Israel will act against Britain," Foreign Minister Gideon Saar warned. Then, on Monday night, Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich called for Israel to sanction Britain over the Falkland Islands. Smotrich, Israel's finance minister, called for the expulsion of the British ambassador to Israel and said: "We will not be a trampled doormat of an antisemitic government, in a country conquered by radical Islam, trying to save itself from economic and social decline by attacking Jews and the State of Israel. The British Mandate in the Land of Israel is over." Ben Gvir, the national security minister, posted on X in Spanish: "I call upon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to recognise Argentina's sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands [the Argentine name for the Falkland Islands] and to impose sanctions on Great Britain as long as the occupation continues." Argentina and the UK both assert sovereignty over the South Atlantic archipelago, but the vast majority of the territory's 3,600 residents back British rule. Last week, Argentina's President Javier Milei declared that Argentina's national sovereignty had been "violated" and that his country would defend its interests "tooth and nail, no matter who it bothers". Milei threatened sanctions on oil firms that seek to drill around the Falkland Islands, adding that the "winds of change" favoured Argentina's claim to them. UK Politics News Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:19 Update Date Override 0