LAST UPDATE | 8 Sep

UK FOREIGN SECRETARY Ed Miliband accused the Israeli government of turning a “blind eye” to what he called “ethnic cleansing” by settlers in the West Bank.

Miliband told parliament the UK government would introduce “an import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories”, in a move coordinated with other countries including France and Canada. 

Ireland and other European countries have previously introduced similar measures. 

“The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists,” said Miliband.

Even before the new measures have been announced, Israeli leaders and their international supporters have accused Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government of “Jew hate” and threatened retaliation. 

Miliband, who is the son of Jewish Holocaust survivors, said in August that the opening of tenders for the construction of an Israeli settlement that would effectively cut the West Bank in half was “unacceptable and destructive”. 

“Britain will not stand back and accept the destruction of the two-state solution,” he said with particular reference to the “E1″ settlement plan. 

An Israeli court today rejected a bid from rights groups to halt development of the settlement.

Miliband said that “all settlements” damage the prospect of there being two states. 

Burnham discussed the issue with US President Donald Trump in a phone call on Monday ahead of the intervention.

“The Brits have lost it. The Jew hate of their government knows no boundaries and knows no facts.”

Government and military-backed Jewish settler terrorism has been rampant across the West Bank in recent years and settlement expansion has rapidly increased since the Hamas-led attacks of October 2023 and the resulting genocide in Gaza. 

More than 700,000 Israeli citizens live in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, all of which are illegal under international law.

The Brits have lost it. The Jew hate of their government knows no boundaries and knows no facts. https://t.co/W6iZ1ZrHrR

— Ambassador Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) September 5, 2026

‘Expel the British ambassador’

In advance of today’s announcement, Israel already threatened to retaliate, with foreign minister Gideon Saar warning: “If Britain acts against Israel, Israel will act against Britain.”

Huckabee told BBC today that imposing sanctions would be “an irrational action” and “discrimination against the Jewish people”.

He also said sanctions would “do great damage to any Brits who are doing business in a number of states in the US”.

Many US states have laws that specifically ban the boycotting of Israel.

Florida congressman Randy Fine, a Republican, said yesterday that Britain was considering “forcing British companies to boycott portions of Israel” and that Burnham’s government should “be aware” that a law in Florida “would ban any British company” from doing business in the state. 

Huckabee also referenced Florida’s anti-boycott law, whose text refers to “Israeli-controlled territories” as well as Israel itself. 

“For example, 25% of pharmaceuticals that are used in the UK are made in Israel,” Huckabee said. 

“Are they willing to give those up? It looks like they are.”

Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, said today that UK sanctions would “directly harm, unfortunately, Palestinians” and constitute a “gross interference in the democratic elections of a sovereign nation”, referring to the general election in Israel set for late October.

Sanctions on Israel from the UK - or any other nation - will prove to be a grave miscalculation, a gross interference in the democratic elections of a sovereign nation, and a decision that will fall on the wrong side of history.

Sanctions are not a solution – dialogue is. I say… pic.twitter.com/ZKjLENRQtG

— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) September 8, 2026

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s extremist national security minister, called on his country’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly recognise the Falkland Islands as “Argentine territory under occupation, which the British violently steal from the Argentine people”.

He wrote on X: “The British are not content with merely occupying the territory; they also carry out oil drilling there and steal the money from the Argentine people.

“I call upon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to recognise Argentina’s sovereignty over the Malvinas Islands and to impose sanctions on Great Britain as long as the occupation continues.”

Meanwhile, Israel’s extremist finance minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the expulsion of the British ambassador.

“Expel the British ambassador tonight!,” he wrote on X on Monday evening.

“We will not be a doormat trampled by an antisemitic government, in a country conquered by radical Islam, trying to save itself from economic and social decline by attacking Jews and the State of Israel.

“The British Mandate in the Land of Israel is over,” he said, referring to the period during which Britain controlled Palestine before the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948.

With reporting from Press Association