The prime minister today defended the government’s announcement of trading sanctions on illegal West Bank settlements, as ITV News Political Correspondent Romilly Weeks reports
The foreign secretary has rejected the suggestion that he has put British Jews at risk by announcing sanctions on illegal West Bank settlements.
Amid a deepening diplomatic row, Ed Miliband said any person who targets British Jews because of the actions of the Israeli government “is an antisemite”.
Both Israel and the US criticised the UK’s move, which will see a ban on imports from illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and sanctions on individuals and firms providing services to settlers.
Chief rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis said people who “use hatred as a weapon against Jews” will be emboldened by the government’s decision.
Hitting back, Miliband told ITV News he does not agree and said that those who conflate the actions of the Israeli government with Jews are antisemitic.
On Wednesday morning, he said: “I don’t agree with the Chief Rabbi, I have great respect for the Chief Rabbi but I speak as a British Jew myself and I think there are many British Jews who will support what we did yesterday.
“I said very clearly in my statement, something which I think all of us must have at the front of our mind, which is holding British Jews or Jews anywhere responsible for the actions of the Israeli government is antisemitism pure and simple.
“We must all call it out and we must all do more as a society and a government on antisemitism.”
Miliband went on to say that Israel’s retaliatory sanctions are “regrettable” but insisted that “it is the right thing to do”.
“I think it’s regrettable that Israel has reacted in the way that it did, but that’s obviously a matter for them.
“We’ve got to do the right thing when it comes to British values, the British national interest and that’s what we did yesterday,” said Miliband.
The Prime Minster Andy Burnham agreed with his foreign secretary and said the sanctions are aimed “not at the Israeli people”, but at bringing peace in the region.
“The Israeli people are not responsible for the actions of their government. And nor is the Jewish community in the UK,” the Prime Minister said.
Speaking at PMQs on Wednesday, Burnham said the sanctions showed leadership and justice in a “dangerous world”.
He told MPs: “In this difficult and dangerous world, Britain has to stand for something. Britain has to show leadership. Britain has to stand for fairness against injustice.
“Where people are being bullied out of their homes, intimidated. We will always stand with the underdog and take what action we can to support them.
“That is leadership on the world stage. Britain being true to what it’s always been about.”
Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar announced that the UK’s consulate in Jerusalem would be closed as part of a package of retaliatory measures.
He also said Israel would ban 11 MPs and a campaigner involved in what he claimed was “antisemitic and anti-Israel activity” from entry to the country.
They include former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott.
Saar said he had spoken to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch on Tuesday night and thanked her for her opposition to the “hostile Labour Government’s announcement”.
The Israeli retaliation came after Miliband told the Commons that a “new approach” was necessary because plans for the E1 development in the West Bank would render a two-state solution “unviable” by “cutting through the heart of Palestine”.
He said more settlements had been approved under the four years of Mr Netanyahu’s government than in the previous 20 years and settler terrorism in the West Bank was “rampant”.
A new comprehensive sanctions regime will target companies and individuals providing services such as financing and construction for the settlements.
There will also be a ban on advertising in the UK of illegal settlements.
Legislation for the new regime could take up to nine months to put in place, Miliband said, but he promised immediate sanctions against “extremist settlers who have supported or incited acts of violence”.
Writing in The Sun, Badenoch said sanctions showed the Prime Minister was “putting its own party-political interests ahead of our national interest”, adding that Israel was “an important security and intelligence partner” for the UK.
“These sanctions are performative politics, designed to appease Labour MPs and activists regardless of the consequences for Britain,” she wrote.
“And those consequences could be serious. Israel is an important security and intelligence partner for the United Kingdom.”
France and Canada also moved to ban goods from the settlements as part of a co-ordinated international action.
US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee called the UK’s move an “irrational action”.
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