UK readies sanctions against Israel to deter proposed illegal West Bank settlement

[highplainsdem]

Source: Guardian

The UK Foreign Office and a group of western countries are due to announce a package of sanctions against Israel this week designed to deter companies from becoming involved in a proposed West Bank settlement that would split the territory in two and render the concept of a two-state solution near impossible.

Nine countries including France, the UK and Australia have warned that settlement violence must stop and no company should be involved in what is known as the E1 development.

Tenders were opened this month for the development of more than 3,000 homes between Jerusalem and the Ma’ale Adumim. The development would split the West Bank between north and south, and so in effect make a contiguous Palestinian West Bank impossible.

It comes as 137 Labour MPs – including the former health secretary Wes Streeting, who said this week he felt he was “hitting up against a brick wall” when he tried to raise concerns about Gaza in government – sent a letter to the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, urging her to take “urgent, concrete action to counter the escalation of violations against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, in particular by ending trade with illegal Israeli settlements”.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/07/uk-sanctions-israel-deter-proposed-west-bank-settlement-palestine

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Good.

[AloeVera]

1. This makes me so angry.

While it's great news - sort of - about the E1 settlement, it points to some very disheartening truths about Western governments. They have to be dragged kicking and screaming and SHAMED into taking the BARE MINIMUM of steps against Israel.

The UK government promised in February it would take steps, followed by stonewalling and inaction. It was only when their own government people took concerted action to shame it into compliance with international law that we see this development.

And it's a pittance, not nearly enough. It limits the sanctions to the newly proposed E1 settlement. I suppose it would be unthinkable to sanction Israel itself, or at the very least, the entire West Bank illegal settlements. Why in the name of all that is good and just is that?