Amnesty official welcomes UK trade ban on Israel’s illegal settlements as ‘significant step’

Amnesty International’s senior director for research, advocacy, policy, and campaigns, Erika Guevara Rosas, has welcomed the UK’s decision to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements, calling the move “a significant step” and an acknowledgment that settlements drive the “unlawful occupation, annexation, ethnic cleansing and the ongoing dispossession of Palestinians.”

Guevara Rosas said in a post on X that the measures are “long overdue” and must mark “the beginning, not the end” of broader international efforts.

She added that the UK must “match words with action and take the far more meaningful steps needed to help end Israel’s impunity”, including halting military cooperation and supporting international justice mechanisms.

Miliband says UK ‘weighed up costs and benefits’ of move on Israeli settlers

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband says Israel’s move to close the British consulate in occupied East Jerusalem in response to plans by the UK, France, and Canada to block imports from illegal 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”.

The UK announced a ban on the import of all goods produced by illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, in the country’s most significant policy since London’s historic recognition of Palestinian statehood last year.

UK blasts Israel’s ‘damaging’ sanctions retaliation

The UK’s Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has condemned Israel’s decision to close the UK consulate in Jerusalem as “regrettable and damaging” after the UK announced sanctions on Israeli settlements.

“We anticipated this might happen because we saw other countries, the Dutch, for example, who had announced sanctions, who had seen these reprisals from Israel. I think they’re regrettable and damaging,” he told BBC Radio.

Miliband rejected suggestions that the sanctions would affect cooperation with Israel.

“We have important intelligence and security relationships with Israel, and I’m confident they will continue and I was very clear yesterday that we do believe in working with our Israeli partners when it comes to the threats they face from Iran.”

Israeli closure of UK consulate another attempt to undermine Palestinians

The general consulate of the United Kingdom is in occupied East Jerusalem, a city besieged by Israel’s separation wall and has lots of military checkpoints, preventing Palestinians who do not have an Israeli military permit from accessing it.

Even the consular services that were provided, such as visas and paperwork for Palestinians, were difficult to access because of severe Israeli restrictions.

Nevertheless, it had diplomats who would come and see for themselves the reality of Israel’s occupation and how the state is covering up violence and enabling it through the impunity that settlers enjoy.

The consul-general would invite ministers from the UK to listen to stories of oppression from Palestinians. The measures taken by Israel against the consulate is another example of how it wants to undermine Palestinians.

What is Britain’s ban on imports from Israeli settlements?

Yesterday, Britain has announced a ban on imports of goods produced in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank as part of a wider package of measures targeting expanding Israeli settlements and intensifying settler pogroms against the Palestinians.

This is not a ban on trade with Israel. The UK has a free-trade agreement with Israel, and that trading relationship is set to continue.

The new ban applies specifically to goods imported from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. This is equivalent to just 0.1 percent of the roughly £6bn (some $8bn) in annual trade between the UK and Israel.

UK secretary rejects chief rabbi’s criticism over settler sanctions

UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has rejected criticism from the country’s chief rabbi, who said the government’s sanctions on illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank endanger Jews.

Miliband, who has described himself as a “proud Jew”, told BBC Radio 4 that he did not agree with Sir Ephraim Mirvis’s comments, but that he has “great respect” for him.

Mirvis has criticized the UK government’s sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements, describing the announcement on Tuesday as a “dark day for British Jews”, adding the decision will “embolden those, at home and abroad, who use hatred as a weapon against Jews”.

Miliband has insisted it is possible to oppose the Israeli government’s actions against Palestinians while also standing up against anti-Semitism.

“dark day for British Jews”

Victimizing oneself is a problematic issue that is rarely known among non-Jewish people let alone that they know the root. It is based on a phrase from the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, who said during a mass rally in Munich: "When you are criticized, blame the victim."

Then, in what way would it be a dark day for the British Jews? That they no longer can buy, for example, olive oil made of olives stolen from Palestinian farmers?

UK rabbi calls for support of sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements

Jeremy Gordon, the rabbi of New London Synagogue, has defended Britain’s ban on the import of goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

“I do not share with those who feel that lovers of Israel, and supporters of Jewish life in this country must oppose, as a matter of course, sanctions designed to limit and draw attention to the damage caused by settler extremists,” Gordon wrote on Substack in an open letter.

“The British Government is saying they are not prepared to legitimise terrorism, settlements and policies that eliminate the possibility of a political resolution. That should be a cause we should support.”

Gordon said he experienced settler violence first-hand in 2024, when he travelled to the occupied West Bank along with other rabbis. “[We were] stoned and repeatedly threatened with being rammed by a pick-up truck in the ruins of the Palestinian village of Zanuta,” he wrote.

“I find this behaviour repugnant and contrary to every understanding I have of what it means to be a Jew and what it means to be an ethical person.”

Lawmaker calls for end of British military ties with Israel

Jeremy Corbyn, current independent MP and former leader of the Labour Party, says it’s time to sever UK military cooperation with Israel over its ongoing attacks on Palestine.

“Yesterday I called for the British government to end the use of British military facilities by Israel, and to end the manufacture of Elbit Systems in Britain and the supply parts for the F-35 jets, which are being made in Britain,” he told Al Jazeera.

“I want to see an end to the war and peace for the Palestinian people. I support those in Israel who want the same things. What Israel keeps doing is conflating any criticism of Israel’s state behaviour with being anti-Semitic. That is complete nonsense,” he added.

“We have to stand up for international law and the UN needs to be much more involved in both supporting the need for aid to get into the West Bank and Gaza, but also supporting the need for an end to the occupation.”

Wide gap between UK public and some politicians over settlement sanctions

There are some differences between the way the new sanctions on Israeli settlements are viewed by the UK Parliament vs the wider public.

There will be greater public support for this policy than there is, perhaps, in Westminster.

There has been, of course, a resounding criticism of this policy, including from opposition leader Kemi Badenoch. She stated that it was just going to add to the anti-Semitic feeling that has existed in the country.

Those concerns were also outlined by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, who said that this was “a dark day for British Jews”.

Since October 7, 2023, there has been a steady and substantial rise in anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic attacks and incidents, including at a synagogue in Manchester and parts of London.

And there is this very uneasy feeling that criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel and the Israeli government are being conflated with antisemitism.

That is, in part, why some people within Labour and other parties are saying it’s very important to make the distinction between criticizing Netanyahu’s government and its failure to do anything about the settler expansions in the occupied West Bank – to state clearly that this does not have anything to do with British Jews.

Burnham defends UK ban on Israeli settlement trade

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham defended a ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying the move demonstrates London’s leadership and reaffirms support for a two-state solution.

Cruelty against Palestinians used as campaign strategies in Israel’s electoral race

Election campaigns in Israel have been in full swing weeks before political parties submitted their final lists, and members of the governing coalition are taking the first swing.

Netanyahu has relied heavily on AI-generated videos to rouse right-wing fervour and attack his opponents. In one of his latest posts, he warns voters that Gadi Eisenkot, who often leads in the polls, is a “Trojan horse” for the Israeli left and Palestinian citizen of Israel Mansour Abbas.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich focused on illegal settlements, where a number of his videos boast of the so-called revolution he has overseen in the occupied West Bank.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is prolific on social media, posting videos of the demolition of Palestinian homes and the mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners, including another AI-generated video featuring a conveyor belt of them being hauled to their deaths in an Israeli prison.

Ben-Gvir has taken down the videos, but only after they were viewed and downloaded millions of times.

In such a fierce competition, brutality against Palestinians is not a shocking factor; it has become a selling point.

Israel’s Netanyahu claims Iran’s government nearing collapse

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the leadership of the Islamic Republic is “very close” to being toppled.

“There is still work to be done – the main task is to bring down the terror regime in Iran. We are very close to that. We know that the entire axis will ultimately collapse,” he said.

Netanyahu made the comments while visiting Jabal al-Sheikh (Mount Hermon) in Syria, where Israeli forces continue to occupy Syrian territory, with his Defence Minister Israel Katz.

“We will not allow any terrorist army to establish itself on our border,” Netanyahu reiterated.

This vague claim is certainly linked to the elections next month.

Israeli minister says no plan to expel entire Palestinian population from Gaza

Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar says the Israeli government does not plan to deport all 2.3 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip – despite recent comments by far-right cabinet ministers saying that’s the intention.

Saar told a press conference in Slovenia: “If someone ‌wants to immigrate [on] his own will and there is a country which is ready to accept him …. we will not oppose that. We will not force anyone against [their] will.”

A seven-year plan for removing Gaza’s population through “voluntary emigration” was released by Israel’s National Security ⁠Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Thursday. The previous day, Defence Minister Israel Katz said there is “no real solution for Gaza ⁠without this migration” of Palestinians.

The forced displacement of civilians from occupied territory is considered a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.

Pro-Palestinian protesters oppose Israel embassy opening in Slovenia

Pro-Palestinian protesters have gathered in Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana, to oppose the opening of Israel’s first embassy in the country.

The diplomatic ties mark a shift in Slovenia’s policy under Prime Minister Janez Jansa, reversing measures against Israel by the previous administration.