Britain had to ‘stand for something’, Prime Minister Andy Burnham told parliament yesterday in a defence of his government’s decision to block imports from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Burnham, who has been in the job since July, said Britain had long endorsed the two-state solution in the Middle East, but words needed to be backed by action.
“Leadership is about taking action where there is injustice, where we need to correct unfairness, people being driven out of their homes,” he said.
“In this difficult and dangerous world, Britain has to stand for something.”
The import ban, announced on Tuesday by Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband alongside measures targeting settlement-linked companies and individuals, marked one of Britain’s most significant policy shifts towards Israel in years. It came as part of a co-ordinated push with France and Canada to pressure Israel over settlement expansion that the countries say threatens the two-state solution.
The Trump administration did not oppose the UK-led initiative to impose new sanctions on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Axios reported yesterday citing US officials and Western diplomats.
The report said that the decision not to push back signals the White House’s ‘frustration’ with the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding its policies in the West Bank.
According to Axios, Burnham had briefed Trump ahead of the announcement. Trump in return reportedly did not push back or ask the prime minister to change course.
“US officials told their British counterparts they shared their concerns about the Netanyahu government’s West Bank policy, even if they disagreed with these specific sanctions,” the report said citing the sources.
Israel reacted angrily to the sanctions. Two Israeli officials and two other sources familiar with the matter said London had been given 30 days to close its East Jerusalem consulate, which represents Britain in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza on Palestinian issues.
Israel has also barred 12 British politicians from visiting the country, told British officials and diplomats in the West Bank and a Gaza co-ordination centre in Israel to leave, and said Britain can no longer train Palestinian security forces in the West Bank.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said he had thanked Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the British opposition Conservative Party, for her criticism of the move.
Burnham yesterday was keen to highlight action on an issue that had long been demanded by many of his legislators.
“We will always stand with the underdog and take what action we can to support them,” he said.
“That is leadership on the world stage, Britain being true to what it has always been about,” he said to cheers from his legislators.
In the West Bank, where Israeli settlements have eaten into territory Palestinians seek for a state, settler business owners said the sanctions – announced on Tuesday by Britain, France and Canada – would dent their revenues and at least one said they could force him to close his date farm.
The sanctions are among the strongest collective actions taken by Western countries that Israel once counted as close allies, highlighting its growing isolation over the war in Gaza and expansion of settlements in occupied territory.
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