London – The UK government announced on Tuesday that it would join 11 other countries with plans to sanction trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The move quickly prompted a warning from the US ambassador to Israel about the repercussions, and Israel’s own president called it “serious interference.” In a joint statement, the United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden said they would “introduce national restrictions and/or support European restrictions on trade in settlement goods that are illegal under international law, or are actively considering these and other measures, in accordance with their national procedures.” The countries said they were acting to safeguard the possibility of the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel – the long-discussed two-state solution – which they said was being undermined by an “unprecedented level of settler violence and settlement expansion” in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said British sanctions would target specific companies and individuals providing services including construction, infrastructure, financing or real estate for settlement expansion, as well as sanctions against individual settlers accused of violence against Palestinians. “The package of measures I have announced represents a clear message to the government of Israel, to the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and to the world that we will not consent to the destruction of the two-state solution,” Miliband said. The measures would be approved within six to nine months, Miliband added, Jewish settlers work in a warehouse in the Yitzhar settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, south of the Palestinian city of Nablus, on September 8, 2026. Amir Levy/Getty Following Miliband’s speech, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar announced several Israeli countermeasures, including the closure of the British consulate in Jerusalem and the suspension of British training for Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank and banned 12 unnamed British elected officials from entering Israel, whom it accused of being “engaged in anti-Semitic and anti-Israel activities.” US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee warned on Tuesday that the UK could face a backlash from the US if it goes ahead with the plan to sanction Israeli settlements in the West Bank. “I don’t know if they are really aware of the implications and how it will affect the British people,” Huckabee told CBS News partner BBC. He noted that some US states, including Florida, have laws requiring reciprocal measures against companies and businesses that comply with sanctions against Israel. big impact,” Huckabee said. Products from Israeli settlements, which are largely agricultural, account for a small percentage of total Israeli trade with the United Kingdom. Florida Republican Congressman Randy Fine said Tuesday in a social media post that the United Kingdom’s sanctions on Israel would effectively “prohibit any British company required to comply from doing business with any state or local government in Florida” under state law. Florida’s trade with the United Kingdom is significant, worth about $4 billion last year according to state data. However, that figure pales in comparison to British trade with its European neighbors and represents a relatively small portion of the total US-UK trade figure, which exceeds $400 billion. Palestinians clear the remains of their demolished shops after carrying out the demolitions themselves before the arrival of an Israeli army demolition team in the West Bank town of al-Eizariya, where Israeli authorities had issued warnings. demolition in an area that Palestinians say is the target of the planned E1 settlement to link Jerusalem and the nearby settlement of Maale Adumim, on May 12, 2026. Jamal Awad/picture Alliance/Getty The planned sanctions by the United Kingdom against Israeli settlements come as Israel pushes plans to build on the E1 project, an area of the West Bank considered crucial to establishing a contiguous Palestinian state in the future Israeli President Issac. Herzog said that sanctions against the settlements, by any nation, would be a “serious miscalculation” and a “serious interference” in Israeli policy, adding that they would end up harming Palestinian workers working in the settlements and ultimately undermine the interests and national security of freedom-loving nations,” Herzog said. Crisis in the Middle East More in:
