UK, France and Canada ban imports from Israeli settlements

The UK will stop allowing goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank to be imported, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has announced. France and Canada are also joining the UK in the ban.

"The UK government agrees there is ethnic cleansing in areas of the West Bank being carried out by settler terrorists," Miliband said in Parliament. "All too often the Israeli government has turned a blind eye to this."

The announcement came as Israel prepares to build 1,200 new homes in an area east of Jerusalem known as E1. Miliband said this move was "illegal under international law" and crossed a red line. 

In the House of Commons, British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband confirmed Britain, France and Canada will impose a ban on the trade of goods and some services from Israeli settlements, having last month condemned Israel’s plans for 1,200 new homes in the E1 area east of Jerusalem.

Confirming the move in a post on 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.”

The Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain and Norway have already imposed similar measures. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Portugal and Sweden pledged support for further action.

Miliband also said the UK considers the occupation unlawful. The government has already suspended over 30 arms licences used by Israeli forces in Gaza.

It will now refuse all licence applications for weapons and other exports that "materially contribute to the occupation". 

The UK will ban advertising of illegal settlements and take action against companies and individuals providing services like construction or finance for settlement expansion.

There are about 160 Israeli settlements housing roughly 700,000 people in the West Bank, occupied since 1967. An estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them. Settler attacks on Palestinians have increased sharply this year, with the UN saying injuries from these attacks have risen to an average of three a day.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog called it a "grave miscalculation" whilst US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said there would "without a doubt" be a reaction from the United States, suggesting British firms could be banned from doing business in a number of American states.

Israel's national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to close the British consulate in East Jerusalem