The UK has moved to stop imports from Israeli West Bank settlements and to block development in the contested E1 area, a step that the Israeli foreign minister has answered by saying Israel will close the British consulate in Jerusalem. The measures and the response mark an immediate diplomatic escalation between the two governments.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told Parliament the UK would impose sanctions on Israeli settlements in the West Bank, describing the action as designed "to deter settlement expansion" and to "prevent the development of E1". He said he would ban the import of goods from Israel's "illegal settlements" in the West Bank and accused settler violence of amounting to "ethnic cleansing" by "settler terrorists", saying the Israeli government had turned a "blind eye".
Israel has opened tenders for the construction of some 1,200 settlement homes at the proposed E1 site, a tract of land adjacent to the large settlement of Ma'ale Adumim. A correspondent reporting from Ma'ale Adumim described the settlement as overlooking the proposed E1 development, underscoring why E1 is both strategically and politically sensitive.
Gideon Saar, Israel's foreign minister, responded to the UK's announcement by saying Israel will close the British consulate in Jerusalem and by calling the UK government "hostile". Those remarks formalise a direct and public diplomatic rebuke to the UK measures.
Both governments have now signalled concrete, oppositional steps: sanctions and import restrictions from London, and the threatened closure of a diplomatic mission from Jerusalem. The immediate practical consequences concern trade flows from West Bank settlements and the status of the consulate in Jerusalem. How those measures will be implemented, and whether they prompt further diplomatic actions or negotiations, remains to be seen.
