UK bans West Bank settlement trade as Ed Miliband rejects Israel backlash

Britain has banned trade and services linked to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, prompting sharp retaliation from Israel. The clash deepens a public rift over settlement policy as more Western countries weigh similar action.Image used for representational purposes onlyBritish Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said on Wednesday that he was disappointed by Israel's response to the UK's decision to ban trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and rejected criticism from the UK's chief rabbi. Israel responded a day earlier by closing the British consulate in East Jerusalem and banning 11 lawmakers from the country.Miliband defended the new measures, saying the UK was right to act. The tougher British position was followed by France and Canada saying they would take similar steps to stop expanding settlements and rising violence from making a future Palestinian state impossible."I regret what the Israeli government has announced, but I'm proud of what we did yesterday and it was the right thing to do," Miliband told Sky News. In the government's strongest criticism of Israel since Britain recognised Palestinian statehood a year ago, he said "settler terrorists" were carrying out "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians. He added that there had been "houses bulldozed, roads and public infrastructure destroyed, families displaced from their homes".Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called the move "despicable" and said Israel would expel UK representatives from a joint military centre monitoring the Gaza ceasefire and end UK training of the Palestinian Authority's security forces in the West Bank. He also said a dozen British lawmakers and other UK citizens would be barred from entering Israel because they were "involved in antisemitic and anti-Israel activity". Ephraim Mirvis, the chief rabbi in the UK, accused the government of "gesture politics" that would bolster "the very extremism they seek to target". Miliband, who is Jewish, said he respected Mirvis but disagreed with him. "We all need to do more to tackle antisemitism, but I believe we can do that and stand up for British values," he said. The UK ban covers imports of all goods from the settlements and stops companies from providing services to them, including financing, construction, infrastructure, real estate and advertising. It will come into force in up to nine months. Miliband also said Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Portugal and Sweden had pledged to "support further action", while the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain and Norway have either banned goods from settlements or are moving to do so. He also tightened Britain's embargo on weapons sales to Israel for use in Gaza to include arms "that materially contribute to the occupation" of Palestinian territories. The economic effect is likely to be limited because the settlements export only a small amount of mainly agricultural goods.Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ultranationalist government, settlement construction in the West Bank, which Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war, has surged. Netanyahu's government sees the West Bank as the biblical and historical homeland of the Jewish people and opposes the creation of a Palestinian state. Much of the international community considers the settlements illegal, and Britain and other countries have raised particular concern over the E1 project, which would effectively cut the territory in two. The latest British move comes amid increased settler attacks on Palestinians, evictions, Israeli military operations and checkpoints, as well as several Palestinian attacks on Israelis, and ends with London and Israel in a sharper public dispute over the settlements issue. With PTI Inputs- EndsPublished By: India Today Web Desk Published On: Sep 9, 2026 18:04 IST