Britain prepares a trade ban on goods from Israeli West Bank settlements

Britain is set to announce a ban on trade in goods, and some services, from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank as early as Tuesday, 8 September. Seven officials briefed on the package described it to reporters on Monday. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband is expected to set the measures out in the House of Commons as part of what he has called a reset of UK relations with Israel.

The planned ban would cover imports and exports of settlement goods and extend to services such as financing and advertising of illegal settlements. Three of the officials said companies that help build settlements could also face sanctions. The move goes past earlier British steps, which targeted named extremist settlers and two far-right Israeli ministers and, in June, strengthened official guidance that British firms should stay out of economic activity in settlements.

Settlement goods are a small slice of the roughly $8 billion in annual UK-Israel trade. The political weight is larger than the customs line. Peace Now counted 146 officially recognised Israeli settlements in the West Bank, not including East Jerusalem, as of last month. Israel has issued tenders for about 1,200 homes in the E1 project east of Jerusalem, a plan that would cut the West Bank's territorial continuity. Miliband called E1 an unacceptable and destructive act and said the government would answer Israeli policy, protect the viability of a Palestinian state and sanction those who take part in illegal settlement growth.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said last week that Israel will act against any new British sanctions and did not spell out the response. The package is expected to draw criticism from Washington as well as Jerusalem. Andy Burnham's government took office after Keir Starmer. Officials around the new foreign secretary argue that settler violence has risen, that the E1 tenders change facts on the ground from November, and that six months of the US-backed Board of Peace did not produce Hamas disarmament or an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Legal design will decide how sharp the ban is. Officials have said a goods ban may need primary legislation rather than a statutory instrument. Services are harder to fence. A bank that finances a construction firm in a settlement and a shop that stocks dates grown beyond the 1967 line are different problems. Sir Chris Bryant, then a trade minister, told Parliament in July that the government was looking at prohibitions on goods and services. Around 140 Labour MPs had written in June asking for a settlement trade ban.

Opinium polling published by the European Council on Foreign Relations found 46 percent of UK adults in favour of a ban on settlement goods and 18 percent opposed. Support rose toward three-quarters among those who expressed a view. That is domestic cover. It is not a substitute for a workable customs definition.

Britain already recognises a State of Palestine, alongside Australia, Canada, France and Norway. It has sanctioned networks accused of financing settler attacks. The June guidance told British citizens and businesses not to conduct economic or financial activity in illegal settlements while leaving trade with Israel inside the 1967 lines intact. Tuesday's announcement, if it matches the briefings, turns advice into prohibition.

The open questions are the ones that will show up in the statutory text. Which postcodes count as a settlement. Whether East Jerusalem is in or out. How a service is shown to support construction. What happens to dual-use goods assembled inside Israel proper from settlement inputs. Saar's warning means Israeli countersanctions are possible. US reaction will matter for London's wider Middle East file.

Until the Commons statement lands, the verified facts are these. The announcement is scheduled for 8 September. The foreign secretary is Ed Miliband. The intended scope is goods plus some services from West Bank settlements. E1 tenders for 1,200 homes sit behind the timing. Settlement-origin trade is a fraction of the $8 billion bilateral total. The rest will be in the paper laid before MPs.