LONDON — Britain announced a ban on goods made in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and sanctions on companies involved in an accelerating building boom in the settlements, which are considered illegal by much of the international community.
Citing ‘ethnic cleansing,’ U.K. bars imports from Israeli West Bank settlements
Numerous other European countries immediately pledged support for the effort, which prompted warnings from the United States.
The Washington Post, September 8, 2026
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Miliband said Britain had concluded the expansion of settlements and the violence toward Arab civilians amounted to “ethnic cleansing” in the West Bank: “All too often the Israeli government has turned a blind eye to this and worse; members of [the government] have made statements and taken actions to support the forced displacement of Palestinians.”
The moves mark the starkest break yet from Britain’s traditional role as a staunch supporter of Israel and show how Israel’s actions in the West Bank and its war in Gaza are straining long-standing alliances.
They also put London at sharp odds with the Trump administration. U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee warned that the policy shift could prompt retaliation by Washington and by states, such as Florida, that have laws that mandate reciprocal actions against such trade bans against Israel.
“I don’t know if they’re really aware of the implications and how this is going to affect Brits,” Huckabee told the BBC. “This is an irrational action.”
Huckabee, in remarks last week, attributed Britain’s move toward a settlement trade ban as “Jew hatred,” although Miliband, who is driving what he describes as a “reset” of Britain’s Israel policy, is Jewish.
The Israeli government responded immediately, ordering the closure of Britain’s consulate in Jerusalem and expelling British representatives from the U.S.-led coordination center in southern Israel that serves to monitor and coordinate Gaza peace efforts. It also promised to ban British officials involved in “anti-semitic” activity, including former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The tit-for-tat represents growing tensions between the countries and a continuation of the tougher stance toward Israel adopted by the Labour government that took power in 2024. One year ago, then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer formally recognized Palestine as a state, breaking with decades of British policy withholding recognition until the sides reached a negotiated settlement. The government also suspended some of its arms export licenses to Israel amid concerns over the killing of civilians in Gaza.
In a joint statement Tuesday, the foreign ministers of Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden framed the trade ban and sanctions as a bid to salvage hopes for a two-state solution, with Israel and a Palestinian state as autonomous neighbors. While acknowledging Israel’s right to defend itself after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas fighters from Gaza, they called for immediate action by Israeli officials to control settler violence in the West Bank.
“The Government of Israel must immediately halt the expansion of settlements and civilian administrative powers, ensure accountability for settler violence, and investigate allegations against Israeli forces,” the statement said.
The latest moves come after a wave of attacks against Palestinian towns and farms by Jewish settlers, often in sight of Israeli soldiers who declined to intervene. The United Nations has documented almost 200 attacks per month in 2026 and warned they were on track to reach an all-time high of 2,000 for the year.
The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also embarked on a major expansion of settlement construction. The plans include a green light for the controversial E1 development, a proposed minor city of about five square miles and thousands of homes adjacent to East Jerusalem that critics say would effectively bisect the West Bank and make a contiguous Palestinian state all but impossible.
In announcing last month that E1 would proceed, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich expressed explicit hope that the project would “bury the idea of a Palestinian state.”
Miliband called the decision “an unacceptable and destructive act.” Britain joined several other European countries in lodging formal complaints about the project.
The new measures target British firms financing or constructing new settlement housing. They will also bar settlement-produced goods — including wine, dates and other exports — from entering the British market. It was not clear how the government will differentiate West Bank products from those produced in Israel itself; both are typically stamped simply “Made in Israel.”
Miliband became Britain’s top diplomat in July when Starmer was replaced by Prime Minister Andy Burnham. Both Miliband and Burnham have expressed concerns about Israeli actions in the West Bank and Gaza.
Miliband has spent the past week laying the groundwork for the policy shift, telling lawmakers Sept. 2 that Britain “will not acquiesce in the destruction of the two-state solution” and that the government did not want “British companies financing, constructing or advertising new settlements.”
Israeli officials have warned of retaliation. Foreign Minister Gideon Saar told an Israeli news outlet last week that “if Britain acts against the state of Israel, the state of Israel will act against Britain.”
Burnham has pushed for a tougher line on Israel since taking office, saying that Britain should have called sooner for a ceasefire in Gaza and calling the suffering there “a scar on our collective conscience.”
The move has drawn objections at home. Some British Jewish organizations have lobbied against the sanctions, arguing that they are driven by domestic politics, could increase antisemitism in Britain and are unlikely to change Israeli policy.
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis wrote on X that a settlement trade ban could easily slide into “a de facto boycott of trade with Israel more broadly,” warning that “when rhetoric towards Israel escalates, hostility towards Jews is never far behind.”
Israeli officials, including Saar, accused the Burnham government of pandering to left-leaning supporters ahead of the Labour Party’s annual convention this month. Labour lawmakers are struggling to fend off growing support for Britain’s Green Party, which has championed pro-Palestinian protests.
The idea that the Labour administration is bending toward its left-wing supporters is common in the Israeli government.
“The way the Israelis see it is that Britain has become a Muslim country and this is all political,” said a person familiar with high-level official deliberations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter on the record. “That’s the assumption inside the government.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog slammed the boycott of settlement goods as a “grave miscalculation.”
“Sanctions are not a solution; dialog is,” Herzog said in a statement Tuesday. “I say to all foreign governments: stop, step away from the dead end of sanctions and boycotts, and turn towards constructive dialog and towards cooperation.”
Some Israeli hard-liners have called for Britain’s ambassador to be expelled, a step Saar stopped short of Tuesday. Israel had previously expelled two Dutch diplomats from the Gaza coordination center after the Netherlands banned products from the settlements.
The political season is also heating up in Israel. Tuesday marks the deadline for parties to submit their official candidate lists for the October election in which Netanyahu is fighting to fend off a coalition of challengers hoping to depose Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.
In addition to the growing sanctions fight, Netanyahu was also confronted Tuesday with damaging new allegations that he ignored warnings in advance of the Oct. 7 attacks, a key issue in the coming election.
Writing in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the authors of a new book allege that the prime minister received an explicit warning from Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates, that Hamas was planning a major operation.
Netanyahu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.