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<\/p>\nUK government bans goods from Israeli settlements and accuses settlers of ‘ethnic cleansing’<\/p>\n
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The United Kingdom on Tuesday banned trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, where it says \u201csettler terrorists\u201d are carrying out \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d of Palestinians, in a significant toughening of Britain’s stance toward a longtime ally.<\/p>\n
Video above: Last family in West Bank Bedouin community forced to leave<\/p>\n
The U.K.’s announcement was an attempt to prevent expanding settlements from making a Palestinian state impossible. Israel responded angrily and said it would close the British consulate in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
The international community overwhelmingly considers such settlements to be illegal<\/a>. More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the Palestinian territory, home to some three million Palestinians. <\/p>\n Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the U.K. will ban imports of all goods from the settlements and bar companies from providing services for the settlements, including financing, construction, infrastructure, real estate and advertising. He said France and Canada would also ban trade in goods from settlements.<\/p>\n \u201cI do not believe the British people want us supporting the occupation by accepting products from settlements in our shops and supermarkets,” Miliband said.<\/p>\n The economic impact is likely to be limited, since the settlements produce only a small amount of largely agricultural exports. But the move is a symbolic expression of displeasure with Israel by some of its closest allies, and a new sign of its growing isolation as a result of the Gaza war.<\/p>\n Miliband said that he feels \u201ca deep sense of shame about what has unfolded in Palestine under the eyes of the international community.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe will not acquiesce in the destruction of the two-state solution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In a statement, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar said Israel would undertake other countermeasures, including expelling U.K. representatives from a joint military center monitoring the Gaza ceasefire and ending U.K. training of the Palestinian Authority\u2019s security forces in the West Bank. In addition, Israel will prevent the entry into Israel of 12 elected U.K. officials, as well as other British citizens Sa\u2019ar said were \u201cinvolved in antisemitic and anti-Israel activity.\u201d<\/p>\n Settlements have expanded under Netanyahu<\/p>\n Under the ultranationalist government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, settlement construction in the West Bank \u2014 seized by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war \u2014 has surged. Netanyahu\u2019s government views the West Bank as the biblical and historical homeland of the Jewish people and is opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state.<\/p>\n Most of the world broadly considers such construction to be illegal and an obstacle to peace. Britain and other countries have voiced particular concern about the E1 settlement project<\/a> approved by Israel, which would effectively cut the territory in two. Palestinians and rights groups say it could destroy hopes for a future Palestinian state.<\/p>\n There have been marked increases in attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians, evictions from Palestinian towns, Israeli military operations and checkpoints that choke freedom of movement, as well as several Palestinian attacks on Israelis.<\/p>\n \u201dThe British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists,\u201d Miliband said. He said there had been \u201chouses bulldozed, roads and public infrastructure destroyed, families displaced from their homes.\u201d<\/p>\n The ban on trade will be in place in six to nine months, Miliband said. He said Canada and France will also announce a ban on goods from Israeli settlements, while Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Portugal and Sweden have pledged to \u201csupport further action.\u201d<\/p>\n The Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain and Norway have either banned goods from settlements or are in the process of doing so, he said.<\/p>\n Miliband also tightened Britain\u2019s embargo on weapons sales to Israel for use in Gaza to include arms \u201cthat materially contribute to the occupation\u201d of Palestinian territories.<\/p>\n Move follows UK recognition of a Palestinian state<\/p>\n