UK to ‘reset policy’ on West Bank settlements, Miliband tells Parliament

JTA – The new British government plans to announce in the coming weeks a comprehensive package of economic sanctions and other measures designed to prevent the Israeli expansion of West Bank settlements. 

Overall, the United Kingdom (UK) needs “a comprehensive reset of our policy” when it comes to the West Bank, British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told the House of Commons on Tuesday. He spoke during his first question-and-answer session with lawmakers since he and the government he represents were sworn in in July. 

Miliband added that the new measures would include a ban on goods produced in the settlements and targeted sanctions on British institutions and individuals. 

“We are looking, indeed, at our wider economic relationship with the occupied territories, and the different tools we have to tackle it,” Miliband explained. “We don’t want British companies financing, constructing, or advertising new settlements. The work we are now undertaking is how we can stop that.” 

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar warned on Tuesday that if the UK acted against his country, the Jewish State would take retaliatory steps. 

“We are prepared and I hope they will not make the mistake of doing this. If they do, there will be a reaction,” Sa’ar said in a podcast interview with the Hebrew news website Ynet. 

Tensions between Israel and the UK have been escalating in light of Israeli military action in Gaza and the West Bank following the Hamas-led 7 October attack. 

The UK’s decision under the last government to recognise Palestinian statehood in 2025 inflamed the situation, which is expected to get worse should Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu win the 27 October election in Israel. 

Any government that Netanyahu forms is expected to be right-wing and to continue the policies of the existing government, just as the UK under Miliband and the new Labour prime minister, Andy Burnham, are more willing than their predecessors to go head-to-head with Israel on the issue. 

Miliband already floated the idea of targeted sanctions after Israel’s Land Authority opened bids for 1 234 homes in the largely underdeveloped E1 section of the West Bank settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim in August, a move that he said would undermine any two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict. 

Miliband went further on Tuesday when fielding questions from lawmakers frustrated about the lack of UK response to Israeli actions in the West Bank, such as terror activity by Israelis against Palestinian civilians and continued settlement building. This includes the opening of E1 bids last month. 

The foreign secretary explained that his words reflected the policies Burnham had considered even before he entered Downing Street in July, such as a ban on trade for goods produced in the settlements. “We are obviously working across government and with our allies on these measures,” Miliband said. 

Israel has said that it has a right to build settler homes in Area C of the West Bank, which is under Israeli military and civilian control and where all the settlements are located. Under the Oslo Accords, the West Bank was divided into three areas, with sections A and B under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority. 

The International Court of Justice in 2024 issued an advisory opinion that such construction in Area C is illegal, affirming a long-held stance of the United Nations, and many nations, including the UK. 

Concern has been particularly high with regard to the E1 project, which would add 3 400 homes to the municipal boundaries of the city of Ma’aleh Adumim by building on an underdeveloped hilltop. The Palestinian Authority and the international community, including past US administrations, have warned that the project would block contiguous Palestinian development in that area and thus make a Palestinian state untenable. 

Miliband referenced that viewpoint when speaking to the House of Commons on Tuesday, explaining that E1 development had long been considered a “red line” because the project “cuts through the heart of the West Bank and risks making a Palestinian state unviable”. 

He affirmed the UK’s commitment to a two-state resolution, explaining that his government would not stand idly by while that vision was being destroyed by Israeli actions on the ground in the West Bank. 

In a harshly worded attack on the UK and Miliband in August, Sa’ar warned on X that the British government’s statements on Israel were fuelling antisemitism in the UK and emphasised that the Jewish people had a right to build anywhere in their ancestral homeland.