UK, France and Canada ban imports from illegal Israeli settlements in West Bank
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "UK, France and Canada ban imports from illegal Israeli settlements in West Bank")
Palestinians inspect a family home destroyed by the Israel army following a military operation Photograph: (AFP)
Britain, France and Canada have announced import restrictions on goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank amid rising settler violence.
Britain, France and Canada on Tuesday have announced an import ban on goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The ally nations are trying to reset their relationship with Israel and reaffirm their commitment to Palestinian statehood amid growing Israeli expansion and settler violence in the occupied West Bank.
British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told MPs that the British Government agrees that the Israeli expansion in the West Bank is unlawful and that "there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank,” adding that “all too often the Israeli government has turned a blind eye to this.”
"Today we refuse to be bystanders to further suffering and to the destruction of the two-state solution," said Milliband. However, it is unclear how these sanctions will be effective and how the goods generated from the West Bank and Israel, those by Israeli settlers and Palestinian citizens, will be distinguished.
He further added that Britain will act in coordination "with others in a broad international coalition,” adding that it will be joined by France and Canada.
In a post on the social media platform X, France’s Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said: “France will end trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territories, along with 11 other countries that have made similar commitments.”
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“France cannot, through its trade, support a situation that threatens the security of both Israelis and Palestinians.”
Israel reacted angrily to the coordinated sanctions from the UK, France and Canada. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the British Ambassador to East Jerusalem to be expelled, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has asked Benjamin Netanyahu to close the British consulate in Jerusalem, which is accredited to the Palestinian Authority.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog has accused the UK of interfering with the Israeli election. He said that the imposition of trade sanctions will be a “grave miscalculation, a decision that will fall on the wrong side of history.”
While the US President Donald Trump has not reacted to these sanctions, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has accused Britain of "Jew hate". He claimed that US states, especially Florida, might take trade actions against the UK.
This comes just two weeks ahead of the United Nations General Assembly meeting of world leaders in New York.
