UK accuses Israeli ‘terrorists’ of ethnic cleansing in West Bank with government backing
 
Ed Miliband announces sanctions on trade with settlements as PM says in the Guardian it is time to act

Settler terrorists supported by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government are committing ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, Ed Miliband has said, in the UK’s starkest condemnation since the foundation of the Israeli state.

In response, the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Saar, announced the closure of the UK consulate in Jerusalem and that 12 British MPs and activists – including Jeremy Corbyn and Labour MP Diane Abbott – would be banned from entering Israel.
 
Saar accused Miliband of “outrageous lies” and said the UK government was “systematically working against the state of Israel”. Washington’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, warned that the US could take retaliatory action over trade.

Miliband suggested that Keir Starmer had been reluctant to take action against West Bank settlers during his time as prime minister. “I’ll say very bluntly we should have acted earlier. And it has taken the new prime minister to come in and recognise the gravity of the situation,” he told MPs.

Miliband said he was taking the action as foreign secretary but also as a “proud British Jew” with relatives who had found safety in Israel after the Holocaust. “I am proud of my Jewishness and unwavering in my support for the state of Israel,” he said.
 
“And there is absolutely no contradiction between this and my support for the state of Palestine. Indeed, quite the opposite. The two-state solution is based on an explicit belief that the only route to security for both peoples is to live side by side in peaceful coexistence with freedom, security and self-determination.”

But the veteran Tory MP Edward Leigh gave full backing to the sanctions. “I am proud to say as the longest serving member of the Conservative Friends of Israel that I absolutely and fully support what he is doing today because it is about standing up for freedom, for morality and justice for all people in this world,” he said.

I believe in a two-state solution in the Middle East. That’s why we’re taking action to keep that hope alive

For too long, we have been hesitant to act, fearful of being accused of being anti-Israel. Today we are announcing carefully judged, targeted steps that are not aimed at the Israeli people, but at the unacceptable policies of the current Israeli government.

The Israeli government has now approved 104 new settlements since it took office in December 2022, and ahead of the October elections in Israel, it is allowing tenders for the construction of the E1 mega settlement to go ahead. This would cut a swathe through the heart of the West Bank – snuffing out the hope of realising a two-state solution. It cannot be allowed to happen.

I have condemned the monstrous terrorist attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 in the strongest possible terms – and continue to condemn Hamas. However, it does not justify the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza or the West Bank.

The Israeli people are not responsible for the actions of their government. And nor is the Jewish community in the UK. Blaming British Jews for the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is wrong, plain and simple. And it is antisemitism, plain and simple.

La paix ne se décrète pas par des sanctions unilatérales : elle se construira par la négociation et la coopération entre Israéliens et Palestiniens.

Cette annonce traduit ensuite une singularisation d'Israël qui interroge. Le monde compte des dizaines de conflits territoriaux, de Chypre du Nord au Cachemire. Combien ont donné lieu à une telle mesure d'interdiction ? Cette focalisation du monde occidental sur le seul conflit israélo-palestinien, qui mobilise une énergie diplomatique sans équivalent, dit moins l'attachement au droit international que le regard particulier porté sur l'État juif.