Former British diplomats have set up a series of “tests” for the government’s upcoming sanctions package against Israel, which is intended to apply pressure against settlement expansion in the West Bank.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband is expected to impose tighter sanctions on Israeli settlements in the West Bank on Tuesday, following months of pressure from MPs. The details of the package are not yet known, but Mr Miliband said it would represent a “comprehensive reset” for the UK’s foreign policy with Israel.
“This government will not acquiesce in the destruction of the two-state solution. We will act, and I will set out a comprehensive set of measures in the coming weeks,” Mr Miliband said last week.
The trigger for the decision was Israel’s launch of a tender last month for the E1 settlement, which would sever the West Bank’s connections to Jerusalem. But campaigners have been calling out Israel’s rapid expansion of its settlements and escalating violence in the West Bank for more than a year.
The government has heard calls to sanction businesses involved in illegal settlements, to criminalise British nationals who own property there, and to ban the trade of settlement goods. The Britain Palestine Project – a grouping of former diplomats to the Middle East – has said there are five “tests” to measure the effectiveness of Mr Miliband’s package.
In a statement, they said the policy should work to end the UK’s involvement in the occupation, as well as settlement trade and services. The package should also strengthen Palestinian statehood, while pressuring Israel and building international support for “real” consequences. “The question has been whether recognition (of Palestine) would be followed by policy,” the BPP’s executive director Brian Brivati said.
“It has been widely trailed as a reset of the UK–Israel relationship. For years Britain has had a privileged relationship with the Israeli government – and that privilege has not stopped settlement expansion, annexation or the destruction of Gaza. Friendship without results is not influence,” the BPP said.
They argue that the policy would mean Israel’s relationship with the UK was “based on law rather than privilege”.
“This is not about isolating Israelis or abandoning the relationship. It is about ending impunity and upholding one standard of international law, for the sake of both peoples."
Braced for backlash
Mr Miliband has faced opposition to the plans from the Israeli government and pro-Israeli British groups. The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Diplomatic Office is said to be divided on the warning that punitive measures from the UK would galvanise the far right in Israel before elections in October.
It is also considering what impact such a policy would have on its relationship with the US. This is seen as one of the issues that held the previous Labour government back on imposing sanctions. The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, accused Mr Miliband – who is Jewish - of “Jew hate” on Sunday.
Concerns have also been raised that sanctions on Israeli settlements would negatively affect the Palestinian economy in the West Bank.
Prof Yossi Mekelberg, associate fellow at the foreign affairs think tank Chatham House, said it was possible to mitigate a decline in the Palestinian economy by pairing any sanctions with support for and investment in Palestine.
“It is a test for every policy that it looks at every angle,” he told The National. “If it’s done in a way that settlements are hurt and Palestinians are not hurt.”
The Tory shadow foreign secretary Tom Tugendhat warned that sanctions could also affect a British-Israeli intelligence-sharing agreement. But Prof Mekelberg said that intelligence sharing was not a “favour” and that pausing it would also be detrimental to Israel.
The British escalation over Israel’s settlements policy was inevitable, Prof Mekelberg added. “The Israeli government is making it impossible not to do something by not dealing with Jewish terrorism, with the illegal settlements and the E1,” he said.
“The way Israel has behaved in the last three years has made it lose so many friends. After October 7 leaders came one by one to express their support. Now Israel risks become a pariah state after it is isolated.”
