Israel Genocide in Gaza - 2023 to present - Part ll

I can't tell you how much I hate CNN. Fox news doesn't shy away from their actual beliefs or political stance, whereas CNN plays the minority, liberal card to conceal their even more viciousness towards Muslims.

 
UK bans goods from West Bank settlements


Screen grab of Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband making a statement on Israel-Palestine in the House of Commons, central London. Picture date: Tuesday September 8, 2026.Image source, UK Parliament

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has announced an import ban on goods from Israeli settlements in the illegally occupied West Bank and announced further sanctions.

Here is what we have heard:

  • Miliband announced the import ban in the Commons, stating he does not believe "the British people want us supporting the occupation by accepting products from settlements in our shops"
  • He says a "comprehensive sanction regime" will be set up, including "appropriate religious exemptions"
  • Addressing those who facilitate illegal settlements, Miliband said: "You will face the full force of UK sanctions"
  • He also told MPs that the UK agrees there is ethnic cleansing in areas of the West Bank, and the view of the government is that the occupation is "unlawful"
  • He also announced the ban of advertising illegal West Bank settlements in the UK
  • "The sanctions regime will target illegal settlements and settlement expansion, not Israel," the foreign secretary added

Miliband also announced the UK was also sanctioning a further set of "extremist settlers" who have "supported or incited act of violence" against Palestinian communities.

"I can also announce that we're extending the existing global human rights regime such that it will enable swifter action to deter settlement expansion, including crucially seeking to prevent the development of E1," he added.

www.bbc.co.uk

UK announces sanctions on Israeli settlements and accuses settlers of 'ethnic cleansing' in West Bank

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband accuses "settler terrorists" of driving Palestinians from their land in the illegally occupied West Bank.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk
 
No ban on providing services to the settlers and their actions in the west bank it seems.... s.
 

UK supports 'full' and 'robust' process to consider genocide allegations​

​

Continuing to discuss Gaza, Miliband cites numbers of those killed and adds the "vast majority" of the population is displaced.

International law imposes clear rules including on access to food and medical supplies, he continues.

On the question of whether there has been a "genocide" in Gaza, the UK has always supported a "full" and "robust" process to consider allegations, Miliband says, with considerations by the courts first.

"That will remain our policy."

He says it is right the matter is before the International Court of Justice.

"We support the court in coming to its determination," he says while pledging to continue to do all they can to provide as much humanitarian support for the people of Gaza.

www.bbc.co.uk

UK announces sanctions on Israeli settlements and accuses settlers of 'ethnic cleansing' in West Bank

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband accuses "settler terrorists" of driving Palestinians from their land in the illegally occupied West Bank.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

( more performative posturing...).
 
High level summary of announcement today.

- UK to ban import of goods from Israeli settlements in West Bank
- UK to ban import of goods from Israeli settlements in West Bank
- UK agrees there is ethnic cleansing in parts of West Bank
- Advertising illegal settlements will be banned in the UK
- UK will refuse exports that 'contribute to the occupation', says Miliband
- UK supports 'full' and 'robust' process to consider genocide allegations
- UK announces sanctions on Israeli settlements in West Bank and accuses settlers of 'ethnic cleansing
 
Last edited:
Urgent: British sanctions on Israel, and the Zionist entity responds by closing the consulate in Jerusalem
​
Diplomatic tensions between Israel and Britain have escalated to unprecedented levels following Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar's announcement (in coordination with Benjamin Netanyahu) of a series of harsh countermeasures against London. The most prominent of these retaliatory measures include: The closure of the British Consulate in East Jerusalem, which serves as the UK's official diplomatic channel of communication with the Palestinian Authority.

(BBC) Twelve British figures have been banned from entering Israel.

The list includes current and former officials and elected representatives whom Israel has accused of engaging in "anti-Semitic and anti-Israel" activities.

Among the most prominent are former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, MP Zara Sultana, John McDonnell, and Diane Abbott.

Coordination on Gaza has been terminated: British representatives have been removed from the Civil-Military Coordination Centre (CMCC) for the Gaza Strip, located in Kiryat Gat.

Training of Palestinian forces has been halted: All activities and training provided by the British Support Team in Ramallah to the Palestinian Authority security forces in the West Bank have been terminated.

The Israeli Foreign Minister considered the British move to be "blatant interference in Israeli internal affairs and an attempt to influence the elections" scheduled for next October.

https://www.bbc.com/arabic/articles/c89jezxywvlo
 
#Breaking | British Foreign Secretary: Our disagreement is not with the people of Israel, but with the behavior of its government, and today we begin a new approach to dealing with injustice.

- Ensuring a two-state solution in its entirety is the compass guiding our government's policy.

- The proposals related to the E1 settlement project mean creating a reality that renders a two-state solution unworkable.

- We will impose sanctions on companies and individuals who provide construction and financing services that contribute to settlement expansion.

- I, along with many others, feel deeply ashamed of what happened in Gaza before the eyes of the international community.

 


Trump did not push back on Burnham’s Israel sanctions
Henry Bodkin, Dominic Penna, Connor Stringer

US president ‘did not ask PM to change course’ on trade restrictions on West Bank settlements

Henry Bodkin Jerusalem Correspondent. Dominic Penna Senior Political Correspondent. Connor Stringer Chief Washington Correspondent

Donald Trump did not attempt to dissuade Andy Burnham from imposing sanctions on West Bank settlements, it has been reported.

The Prime Minister called the US president to inform him of the new trade restrictions on Israeli settlers before Tuesday’s announcement by Ed Miliband, the Foreign Secretary.

But Mr Trump “did not push back or ask Mr Burnham to change course”, American news outlet Axios reported.

A similar account was reported by the Times of Israel.

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, also refused to condemn the UK’s action, even saying that the US and UK shared the same goals over violence in the West Bank.

For weeks, Israeli officials and some independent experts had said the US would punish Britain if it imposed trade sanctions on the settlements.

On Monday, Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel and a strong supporter of the settlement project, warned that “without a doubt”, the US would react to the measure.

However, on Tuesday, Mr Rubio pointed out that “the president has not commented on this”.

Britain’s new sanctions were coordinated with France and Canada and received public endorsement from nine other European countries.

In his announcement, Mr Miliband said settlers were “terrorists” who were carrying out “ethnic cleansing”.

Israel dismissed the “outrageous lie” and ordered the closure of Britain’s consulate in East Jerusalem, expelled other diplomats and banned 11 Left-wing MPs, including Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott, from entering the country.

The sanctions and resulting countermeasures have brought UK-Israel relations to their lowest point since the birth of the Jewish state.

Mr Trump’s refusal to condemn Britain is the latest sign of his acrimonious relations with Benjamin Netanyahu.

The pair have previously disagreed over strategies for the Iran war and the peace process in Gaza.

Moreover, the US has criticised settler violence in the West Bank and told Israel it should not formally annex the occupied territory, as this would alienate the US’s Arab and Muslim allies in the region.

Mr Rubio said: “We were made aware that they [UK] were going to make this decision.

“We heard their arguments as to why. Look, we share the goal of stability. We don’t want to see some uptick in violence or uptick in tensions in the West Bank at a very tenuous time in the region.”

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Hugh Lovatt, an Israel-Palestine expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the lack of US reaction “shows that the warnings of US retaliation that came from the supporters of Israel and its settlements were largely baseless and manufactured to deter yesterday’s move by the British Government”.

He added that the silence was also likely to have reflected a “lack of coherent US policy towards the West Bank, which it continues largely to prioritise”.

Mr Lovatt said: “The fact that the UK was joined by Canada as well as France and other European countries may also indicate a broader malaise with the US transatlantic relationship and a greater willingness to collectively work around Washington on key issues.”

On Wednesday, a US Congresswoman urged Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, to add the UK to the Treasury’s blacklist over its sanctions against Israel.

Representative Claudia Tenney asked Mr Bessent to investigate whether Andy Burnham’s new trade restrictions on Israeli settlers amount to participation in an unsanctioned “international boycott”.

“Under this law, the Treasury Department is required to maintain a list of countries that condition commercial participation on compliance with an unsanctioned international boycott. Inclusion on this list imposes specific tax reporting requirements and potential penalties for US individuals and businesses engaged in certain activities in those countries,” she wrote.

“The United States must send a clear signal that efforts to economically isolate Israel will carry consequences, and that US law designed to combat such discrimination will be enforced,” Ms Tenney added.

‘A dark day for British Jews’

The sanctions include an import ban on all goods produced in Israeli settlements in the West Bank and an embargo on arms exports that “materially” support them.

In his announcement, Mr Miliband became the first British minister to accuse Israeli settlers of ethnic cleansing, in a hardening of the UK’s diplomatic position towards the country.

The Chief Rabbi warned that the new measures were “truly a dark day” that would harm British Jews.

Sir Ephraim Mirvis condemned the Foreign Secretary for implementing trade restrictions and accused him of fuelling “mendacious anti-Israel rhetoric” that would put Jewish people in danger.

On Wednesday, Mr Miliband told Sky News: “I’m a proud British Jew and I don’t agree with the Chief Rabbi. I have great respect for the Chief Rabbi, but I don’t agree with him.”

He added: “I believe that it must be possible to do what we did yesterday, which is to stand up for British values, for the rule of law, of dignity of people, of the prevention of injustice.

“And [we should] do so in a way, as I did yesterday, to say to anyone in our country who holds British Jews responsible for the actions of the Israeli government, that is anti-Semitism, pure and simple. But I believe we can do that and stand up for British values.”

Mr Miliband insisted that the sanctions were the only way to safeguard the prospect of a two-state solution in which a secure Israel could co-exist with a viable Palestinian state.

He continued: “I regret what the Israeli government has announced, but I’m proud of what we did yesterday and it was the right thing to do.”

Mr Miliband added: “It will be damaging, that is true. But we weighed up the costs and benefits in advance of this.

“I would have preferred that Israel wouldn’t have announced what it did, but overall, I strongly believe that what we did along with other international allies was absolutely the right thing to do.”

The sanctions were triggered in part by Israel inviting tenders to build a large new settlement to the east of Jerusalem called E1, which threatens to cut the Palestinian urban heartland of the West Bank in half.

However, Labour has been accused of using the E1 proposals as a pretext for sanctions that it had intended to impose anyway after years of domestic pressure to adopt a tougher stance on Israel.

Mr Burnham used one of his first foreign policy pronouncements since returning to Westminster to apologise to Labour members for his party’s record on the issue.

Sir Keir Starmer, his predecessor, spent months resisting pressure to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza after the attacks on Oct 7, 2023, in which Hamas murdered 1,200 Israelis, triggering the conflict in Gaza.

Mr Burnham, then the mayor of Greater Manchester, joined other local Labour leaders in demanding an end to hostilities three weeks after the massacre.

Labour subsequently lost a significant amount of support at the ballot box from Muslim and hard-Left voters, with five independent MPs elected at the last national poll on a pro-Palestinian ticket at the general election in 2024.

The Jewish Leadership Council, one of the UK’s leading Jewish organisations, accused Labour of sanctioning Israel to appease Islamist extremists, while the Board of Deputies of British Jews warned that the sanctions risked further inflaming community tensions.
 
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