London (QNN)- UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said Israel’s retaliatory measures against Britain after London, alongside France and Canada, imposed a ban on trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank “will be damaging.”
“But we weighed up the costs and the benefits in advance,” said Miliband, adding that all representatives of the Palestinian Authority asked London “to act”.
Miliband said the UK had to "call out" Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank before it was "too late" to save the two-state solution
He told the BBC the prospect of a Palestinian state alongside Israel is "being destroyed by the facts on the ground"
He also rejects the suggestion that British sanctions could lead to increased antisemitism for Jewish people in the UK.
The United Kingdom has announced a ban on the import of all goods produced by illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, in the country’s most significant policy since London’s historic recognition of Palestinian statehood last year.
In a speech to Parliament, UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband accused Israel of carrying out “ethnic cleansing” in Palestine and affirmed that it is official UK policy that the Israeli settlements rapidly expanding across the occupied West Bank are “unlawful”.
He said he did not believe “the British people want us supporting the occupation by accepting products from settlements in our shops”.
Miliband also announced tougher new restrictions on arms sales to Israel.
“I can also announce that we’re extending the existing global human rights regime such that it will enable swifter action to deter settlement expansion, including crucially seeking to prevent the development of E1,” Miliband added. E1, a proposed settlement in the West Bank, would divide the Palestinian territory in two and put an end to hopes for a two-state solution, he said.
Israel announced four “counter measures”, including banning 12 British MPs from entering Israel and closing the British consulate in Jerusalem, following his speech.
The UK’s trade ban on goods from illegal settlements comes amid an intensifying wave of Israeli settler pogroms on Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank and controversial settlement expansions that have prompted a UK-led debate on Europe-wide trade restrictions.
After Miliband’s speech, 12 countries shared a joint statement supporting the two-state solution and announcing their own intentions to impose restrictions on trade with illegal Israeli settlements.
France, the UK, Canada, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Sweden called on the Israeli government to immediately halt the expansion of settlements.
