Britain sanctions Israeli settlements in a landmark break with Netanyahu
London bans settlement goods, targets settler violence, and declares occupation unlawful — long-overdue move Palestinians and campaigners are calling first real step toward accountability
LONDON (MNTV) — Britain has imposed its most significant measures against Israel in a generation, banning imports from illegal West Bank settlements, sanctioning settlers and companies driving settlement expansion, and formally declaring Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory unlawful — a decisive shift welcomed by Palestinians and rights advocates as the moment London finally began matching words with action.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced the package in the House of Commons on Tuesday, calling it a “reset” of Britain’s relationship with Israel and a defense of the two-state solution against an occupation designed to destroy it.
The measures land as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government presses ahead with the E1 settlement project east of Jerusalem, which would sever the occupied West Bank in two and, campaigners warn, extinguish any viable Palestinian state.
Britain acted alongside France and Canada, which announced parallel bans on settlement goods, joining the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain, and Norway — a widening Western front against an enterprise the world’s highest court has ruled must end.
What measures do
At the center of the package is a ban on importing goods produced in Israeli settlements in the “illegally occupied” West Bank, alongside new restrictions on settlement-linked services including construction, infrastructure, finance, and real estate.
Britain will also bar the advertising and sale of illegal settlement properties to U.K. buyers, sanction a further set of extremist settlers and settler organizations behind violence against Palestinians, and target specific companies and individuals profiting from the theft of Palestinian land.
Miliband told MPs that settler violence had been “catastrophic” for Palestinian communities, and — in language far sharper than his predecessors used — accused settlers of carrying out “ethnic cleansing” in parts of the West Bank.
He said there was “increasing evidence that war crimes appear to have been committed,” and confirmed Britain now regards the occupation itself as unlawful, aligning U.K. policy with the International Court of Justice’s 2024 finding that Israel’s presence in the territories is illegal and must be brought to an end.
The government had already summoned Israel’s envoy in August over E1, which Miliband called an “unacceptable and destructive act” crossing a “red line.”
Overdue step, and its limits
For Palestinians and their supporters, the measures are a breakthrough after years in which British condemnation of settlement expansion was never backed by consequences.
Chris Doyle of the Council for Arab-British Understanding called them “a real step towards change from a situation in which another country has been giving a green light to continued Israeli settlement expansion, the theft of Palestinian lands and resources, the forcible dispossession of Palestinian communities.”
The move reflects overwhelming British public opinion: polling by Opinium for the European Council on Foreign Relations found Britons favor banning settlement trade by more than two to one, with just 18 percent opposed.
Campaigners stress the measures must be a beginning, not an end. Six Palestinian-solidarity organizations, the Labour Muslim Network, and legal advocates have pressed the government to go further — suspending all remaining arms export licenses to Israel, including U.K. components for the F-35 fighter jets used over Gaza, and moving toward comprehensive sanctions.
They note the package targets settlements while leaving Britain’s roughly £6 billion annual trade with Israel largely untouched, and that Miliband explicitly ruled out a broader boycott, rejected the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, and declared “unwavering” support for Israel.
He also declined to call Israel’s conduct in Gaza genocide — a determination a UN commission of inquiry has already reached, and which South Africa is pursuing against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Israel threatens retaliation
Israel’s response was furious. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar warned bluntly: “If Britain acts against the State of Israel, the State of Israel will act against Britain.
We have the tools.” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — himself already under British sanction, alongside National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, for inciting anti-Palestinian violence — demanded the British ambassador be expelled “tonight,” calling London’s government “antisemitic.” Ben-Gvir urged Netanyahu to shut the British Consulate in East Jerusalem, which serves Palestinians.
President Isaac Herzog accused Britain of “gross interference” in a sovereign nation’s democracy, weeks before Israel’s Oct. 27 election.
That the sharpest objections came from two ministers sanctioned for inciting violence, and from a government advancing a settlement plan its allies call a red line, underscored for many why the measures were necessary.
Netanyahu’s coalition has made settlement expansion and, increasingly, the mass displacement of Palestinians explicit policy, even as the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 73,000.
For Palestinians who have watched settlements swallow their land for decades with little Western resistance, Britain’s move — however partial — marked a rare moment of accountability, and a test of whether more will follow.
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