London, Sept. 8 (SANA) The United Kingdom announced Tuesday that it will ban imports of goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories and introduce a comprehensive sanctions regime targeting individuals and companies involved in settlement expansion.
British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told the House of Commons that legislation implementing the measures would be in place within six to nine months, according to a statement published by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
Miliband said the UK government believes the unlawfulness of the occupation should be reflected in its economic relations with the occupied territories, adding that the new sanctions regime will target illegal settlements and settlement expansion rather than Israel itself.
Under the measures, Britain will take action against specific companies and individuals providing construction, infrastructure, financing or real estate services that facilitate settlement expansion. The government will also ban advertising in the UK promoting illegal settlements and impose further sanctions on extremist settlers accused of supporting or inciting violence against Palestinian communities, according to the FCDO statement.
Miliband said the British government considers that Palestinians in parts of the occupied West Bank are facing ethnic cleansing perpetrated by extremist settlers, pointing to the demolition of homes and infrastructure and the displacement of Palestinian families.
He said the E1 settlement project would create facts on the ground that make a two-state solution unviable, noting that the proposed expansion would place settlements between East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The move is part of broader international action against settlement expansion. In a joint statement published Tuesday by the FCDO, the foreign ministers of the UK, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden said they intend to introduce national measures, support European restrictions on trade in settlement goods or are actively considering such measures.
The 12 countries called on the Israeli government to immediately halt settlement expansion and ensure accountability for settler violence, warning that developments in the occupied West Bank are undermining the prospects for a two-state solution.
Last month, the UK summoned the Israeli chargé d’affaires over the Israeli government’s publication of a tender for the E1 settlement project, demanding that the plan be withdrawn and settlement expansion halted, according to the FCDO.
FJ/HH
