By Sabiu Abdullahi
Twelve countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada and France, have announced plans to restrict trade in goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank amid growing settler violence against Palestinian communities.
The countries disclosed their position in a joint statement issued by their foreign ministers on Tuesday. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden were also signatories.
The ministers warned that Israel’s continued settlement expansion and increasing violence in the West Bank were undermining prospects for a two-state solution.
“The government of Israel’s actions in the West Bank are undermining the possibility of a two-state solution,” the ministers said.
They also called on Israel to immediately halt settlement expansion and the transfer of civilian administrative powers, while demanding accountability for settler violence and investigations into allegations involving Israeli forces.
The British Foreign Secretary, Ed Miliband, accused the Israeli government of turning a “blind eye” to what he described as the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians by settlers in parts of the West Bank.
Miliband told parliament that the UK would introduce an import ban on goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied territories as part of the coordinated action.
“The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists,” he said.
He further accused some members of the Israeli government of supporting actions that could result in the forced displacement of Palestinians.
More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, alongside an estimated three million Palestinians.
According to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry data, at least 1,105 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the territory since the outbreak of the Gaza war.
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog criticised the planned measures, saying the sanctions would “fall on the wrong side of history”.
In response to the British government’s position, Israel ordered the closure of the British consulate in East Jerusalem and barred 12 Britons, including Labour Party lawmakers, from entering the country.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States would not join the new sanctions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has continued to defend the expansion of settlements in the West Bank.
