Miliband Tells Commons Britain Now Regards the Occupation as Unlawful

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has told MPs that the British government now regards Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories as unlawful in its entirety, a shift from the long-standing position that treated only the settlements themselves as illegal.

Setting out the change in a Commons statement on Tuesday, Mr Miliband said the government had concluded that the occupation had been entrenched through an expansionist settlement programme and an intention to extend permanent sovereignty.

What was announced

The centrepiece is a ban on imports of goods produced in settlements in the occupied West Bank. Mr Miliband told the House he did not believe the British public wanted the country supporting the occupation by accepting settlement produce in its shops and supermarkets.

Alongside it, ministers will introduce a sanctions regime aimed at companies and individuals supplying services to the settlements, including financing and construction. Advertising settlement properties in the United Kingdom will also be prohibited.

Three further measures take effect immediately. A group of extremist settlers accused of carrying out or inciting violence against Palestinians has been sanctioned. The existing global human rights sanctions framework is being widened to allow faster action against settlement growth, including the contested E1 development. And the government will refuse all export licence applications for arms and other goods judged to contribute materially to the occupation.

Language that went further than before

Mr Miliband said the government accepted that ethnic cleansing of Palestinians was taking place in parts of the West Bank, carried out by what he called settler terrorists. Too often, he said, the Israeli government had turned a blind eye, and some of its members had gone further and supported forced displacement.

On Gaza, he said evidence that war crimes had been committed was mounting, but stopped short of the word genocide, holding to the position that such a determination rests with international courts.

The Foreign Secretary, who described himself during the statement as a proud British Jew, said Britain's argument was not with the Israeli people. The country could no longer simply call out injustice, he said, and had to act.

Political context

Prime Minister Andy Burnham spoke to the US President on Monday, the day before the statement. A readout issued by Downing Street said Mr Burnham had stressed Britain's commitment to peace and security in the region and to a two-state solution.

Pressure for a settlement goods ban had been building on the government benches for some time, with dozens of MPs and peers having written to ministers demanding one.

The measures are understood to be narrow in scope and will not come into force immediately. Officials have indicated the ban will apply specifically to goods originating in the settlements rather than to Israeli trade generally.