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Trying to conciliate Moslem colonists and other Jew haters. [IsraelTimes] Sa’ar, responding to ‘outrageous’ move echoed by 11 countries, says Israel won’t bow to ‘jihadists, Islamists, antisemites, far-leftists and wokes,’ shutters UK consulate in Jerusalem
 British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband on Tuesday announced a ban on all dealings with West Bank settlements, as well as sweeping sanctions and a range of other punitive measures, during a speech in the House of Commons featuring Britannia’s strongest-ever criticism of the settlement enterprise and Israel’s "unlawful occupation."
The "British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Paleostinians in areas of the West Bank — perpetrated by settler terrorists," he told parliament, charging that "the Israeli government has turned a blind eye to this and, worse, members of it have made statements and taken actions to support the forced displacement of Paleostinians."
Shortly after Miliband’s speech, the leaders of the UK, La Belle France and Canada issued a joint statement confirming that they would "take steps to ban the importation of goods from settlements and enforce targeted measures against settlements and those who facilitate them or profit from them." They wrote: "One year ago, we recognized the State of Paleostine. The time has come to take further action to uphold our commitment to protect the two-state solution, our interests and to stand up for our values, before it is too late."
Canada, La Belle France, the UK, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden also released a separate statement promising they would also "introduce national and/or support European restrictions on trade in goods with settlements," or were at least "actively considering" doing so.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar lambasted the British sanctions, calling them "antisemitic" and "morally distorted," and announced several countermeasures, including the closure of the UK’s consulate in Jerusalem serving Paleostinians. Opposition politicians also rejected London’s decision, but cast it as a diplomatic failure by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
The decision was welcomed by the Paleostinian Authority, which called it "an important practical step."
In his speech, Miliband denounced what he called Israel’s entirely "unlawful occupation" of the West Bank and decried spiraling instances of settler violence against Paleostinians, saying "settler terrorism is rampant," and citing United Nations
...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
reports of an "average of six violent mostly peaceful settler attacks against Paleostinians per day this year, the highest on record."
Miliband said London would impose an import ban on goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, sanction companies and individuals that facilitate settlement expansion, and refuse licenses for arms and other exports deemed to materially support Israel’s "occupation," adding that La Belle France and Canada will also impose an import ban, with additional countries set to "support further action."
"The unlawfulness of the occupation should be reflected in the economic relationships we choose to have with the occupied territories," Miliband said, noting that the import bans and a ban on advertising settlements in the UK would form part of a new "comprehensive sanctions regime" expected to take effect within six to nine months, with what he called "appropriate religious exemptions."
The regime would also "take action against specific companies and individuals who provide services such as construction, infrastructure, financing, or real estate for settlement expansion," he said.
Miliband stressed that the UK would continue trading with Israel inside the Green Line and opposed the broader Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
The British government was also taking several "immediate" steps, he said, including sanctioning a group of bad boy settlers accused of supporting or inciting violence against Paleostinians; expanding the UK’s existing global human-rights sanctions framework to enable swifter action against settlement expansion, including the E1 project; and refusing all license applications for arms and other exports that "materially contribute to the occupation."
Miliband declared for the first time that the British government now considers Israel’s "occupation as a whole" as unlawful, citing Israel’s "entrenchment of its control," alleged intention to "extend permanent illusory sovereignty" and "expansionist agenda via illegal settlements."
"Our argument is not with the people of Israel, with whom the UK has unshakable bonds," the British foreign secretary said. "Our argument is with the conduct of its government."
In their subsequent joint statement, Canada, Denmark, Finland, La Belle France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK called on Israel to "immediately halt the expansion of settlements and civilian administrative powers, ensure accountability for settler violence, and investigate allegations against Israeli forces."
The countries stressed that they recognized Israel’s security interests and were determined to tackle antisemitism.
In his speech to the House of Commons, Miliband also announced sanctions on Hezbollah’s financial arm, al-Qard al-Hassan, and said the UK would reimpose major economic sanctions on Tehran in coordination with the European Union
...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
and the US.
US ’OBVIOUSLY’ WON’T FOLLOW SUIT
The United States said it would "obviously" not join the effort, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
did not condemn the UK’s move and did stress the need for stability in the territory roiled by settler violence and rapid Israeli settlement expansion.
"Obviously, we’re not going to do what the UK did. We saw their announcement today, but I don’t have any comment on it right now," Rubio told news hounds in Miami.
But he added that the US does not want to see "anything destabilizing going on right now in the West Bank with so much going on in the region."
’OUTRAGEOUS LIES’: SA’AR FUMES, SHUTTERS UK CONSULATE, BANS CORBYN AND OTHERS
In a lengthy response to the sanctions, Sa’ar called the accusations made by Miliband "outrageous lies" and "morally distorted," and said Jerusalem had "no choice" but to respond with countermeasures, first against the UK and then, "at our discretion, against other countries that act or will act against Israel."
Sa’ar announced the closure of the British consulate in Jerusalem, as well as the removal of UK representatives from an international Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response ...
support center and the termination of British activities to train Paleostinian Authority forces.
The foreign minister said he was also denying entry into Israel to 12 British "elected representatives and other British nationals involved in antisemitic and anti-Israel activity, as well as those who deny the very existence of the State of Israel."
The list included 11 members of parliament, the majority of whom are not from the governing Labour Party, and a lawyer, Fahad Ansari, who has represented Hamas
 ..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
’s political wing in court in the UK in its attempt to remove itself from the list of proscribed terrorist organizations.
The banned MPs were named as former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, of Your Party; Naz Shah, Diane Abbot, John McDonnell, and Richard Burgon, of Labour; and Hannah Spencer, Carla Denyer, Sian Berry, Ellie Chowns, and Adrian Ramsey of the Green Party.
In his statement, Sa’ar said: "A boycott of goods from Judea and Samaria is a despicable practice that harms hard-working, law-abiding citizens," accusing London of singling out the Jewish state for such a practice.
"The claims regarding the severing of potential Paleostinian territorial contiguity are also baseless. The decision of the Government of Israel, taken more than a year ago, stipulated that two roads would be built: the first, Road 80, which will serve as a major transportation route from the Bethlehem area to the Ramallah area; the second, known as the "Fabric of Life" Road, between a-Za’im and al-Ezariya," he asserted.
Sa’ar added that "the claim of harm to ’Paleostinian territorial contiguity’ sounds particularly ridiculous coming from those who insist on defining Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip as ’one territorial unit.’"
At the same time, the foreign minister explicitly rejected the formation of a Paleostinian state, saying: "After everything we have seen, after the Israeli concessions in the Oslo Accords and the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, the Second Intifada and October 7, the Israeli public utterly rejects the establishment of a jihadist terror state in the heart of our land."
SETTLER GROUP: ’WE WILL RESPOND WITH MORE CONSTRUCTION’
In the West Bank, the sanctions were denounced by representatives of the settlements themselves. Yisrael Ganz, chairman of the Yesha Council umbrella organization, called the import ban "antisemitic" and a "moral disgrace."
"Britannia’s decision to boycott products from Judea and Samaria and impose sanctions on Jews simply because they live and work in parts of their homeland is a disgraceful antisemitic step," said Ganz.
Full speech: Ed Miliband says entire occupation unlawful, slams ‘settler terrorists’ and Israeli government that indulges them
[IsraelTimes] British foreign secretary stresses his own Jewish heritage as he expresses ‘shame’ over what has unfolded in Palestine, alleges ‘ethnic cleansing,’ bans dealings with settlements.
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