LONDON, Sep 08 (Alliance News): Britain is expected to announce sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, a government minister said, in a move likely to increase tensions with Israel and the United States.
Minister Pat McFadden said Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband would make a statement to parliament outlining measures specifically targeting the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
The proposed measures come after weeks of increasing attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian villages, with several Western governments warning that the violence and continued settlement expansion could threaten the possibility of a two-state solution.
McFadden said the measures would be aimed at preserving the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
He stressed that the measures would not amount to a boycott of Israeli goods, noting that Israel remains an important trading partner for Britain.
UK ministers have recently indicated that goods produced in Israeli settlements could face trade restrictions under the new measures.
Miliband last week pledged a “comprehensive” reset of Britain’s policy towards Israel and condemned what he described as “appalling settler terrorism” in the occupied West Bank.
He also criticised Israel’s E1 development plan, which involves more than 1,200 homes and was approved last year, saying the project could divide the West Bank and make the establishment of a Palestinian state unviable.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue establishing settlements despite growing international pressure and has also promised a major wave of immigration to the Palestinian territory.
Recent settler violence has drawn condemnation from Netanyahu, as well as unusually strong criticism from the US ambassador and European governments.
In September last year, then-British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that the UK would formally recognise a Palestinian state, marking a major shift in decades of British foreign policy.
According to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry data, Israeli forces or settlers have killed at least 1,105 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
More than 500,000 Israelis currently live in settlements in the Palestinian territory, alongside around three million Palestinians.
