Britain is moving to restrict trade in goods produced in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and to formally adopt the International Court of Justice position that the occupation is unlawful, in what Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has described as a "comprehensive reset of relations with Israel".
Miliband was due to set out the package in a statement to the House of Commons on Tuesday afternoon. Jewish News, whose political editor first reported the plan in July, understands the measures center on produce and agricultural goods imported from settlements. They stop short of covering all service industries, including banking, telecommunications and some technology firms, which officials regard as too difficult to enforce. Further steps target individuals and companies profiting from businesses operating in the territories.
The legal shift may prove more consequential than the trade measures. The government is expected to confirm that it now backs the 2024 ICJ advisory opinion obliging states to prevent trade and investment that sustains settlements, and to state that it accepts the court's finding that the occupation is unlawful. Former Attorney General Richard Hermer KC has completed a review of British compliance with international law in relation to Israel's conduct in the West Bank.
The package includes exemptions for traders engaged in humanitarian or solely religious activity, added after concern that restrictions could affect Jewish religious practice in areas such as Jerusalem's Old City.
The immediate trigger is E1, the corridor of roughly 12 square kilometers between East Jerusalem and Maale Adumim. Israel gave final approval to the plan last year and opened tenders last month for 1,200 homes, with a bid deadline of October 19. Miliband has called the move the crossing of a red line and summoned Israel's chargé d'affaires to demand an immediate reversal, arguing the development would cut through the West Bank and leave a Palestinian state unviable.
Israel has signaled it will respond. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told Ynet that if Britain acts against Israel, Israel will act against Britain, adding that his government has the tools to do so. He has separately described British criticism as an attempt to lecture the Jewish people about where they may live. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called for sanctions on Britain over the Falkland Islands. A more likely retaliation, according to reporting in the British Jewish press, would be expelling British personnel from the multinational command center in Kiryat Gat overseeing the Gaza ceasefire.
Washington opposes the move. US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has warned of possible American retaliation, and The Times reported that the Trump administration would issue a statement attacking the intervention. Prime Minister Andy Burnham raised the Middle East with President Donald Trump in a call on Monday. The Downing Street readout referred to British commitment to peace in the region and to a two-state solution, without indicating how Trump responded. France and Canada are understood to be considering parallel announcements.
British Jewish institutions have opposed the package in advance. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council all raised objections before the announcement, and Burnham met communal leaders last week to hear those concerns again. Jonathan Hall KC, the government's independent adviser on terrorism legislation, said on Monday night that the announcement could affect the safety of British Jews, and the independent reviewer of terror legislation has warned about the consequences of treating Israel as a pariah state a year after the Heaton Park attack.
Peter Prinsley, a Jewish Labour MP and vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel, told BBC Radio 4 that his concern was that opponents of Israel would fail to distinguish between Israeli government policy, Zionism as a political philosophy, and British Jews.
Miliband is expected to frame the measures as an attempt to preserve the two-state solution rather than to isolate Israel, to reference his own family ties to the country, and to acknowledge both the Holocaust and the October 7 attack (while acting against the only Jewish state that exists.)
The timing has been contested within government. Ministers were told there was a narrow window once Parliament returned this month, before the party conference recess, and were warned about the proximity to the Jewish High Holy Days. Israel goes to the polls on October 27, and critics of the package have argued that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may turn British pressure to electoral advantage.
Israel has built roughly 160 settlements housing around 700,000 people since 1967. About 3.3 million Palestinians live in the territory.
