Arbel settlement in the Lower Galilee, northern Israel, July 26, 2026
Settlements sanctioned – but not Israel itself
As marauding Israeli settlers stepped up their attacks on West Bank communities, the UK government announced its toughest steps yet against Israel’s war crimes.
There will be sanctions against funding the settlements and importing their produce and tighter restrictions on the supply of arms to Israel. But supporters of Palestine said the measures were not enough.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced the measures on September 8 in strong language. He spoke of “terrorist” settlers engaging in “ethnic cleansing”.
In the West Bank, one settler leader has said publicly that he would be willing to kill all Palestinians who refuse to leave their homes. Yehuda Shimon told the BBC he believes one Jew is worth “10 million” Palestinians.
As a lawyer who works with a settlers’ organisation he admitted he was racist, but his message was: “If you don’t want to get out, I don’t have a choice: I must kill you, and I kill you all.”
The Chief Rabbi of Israel, David Yosef, prayed at an event in Jerusalem in August that God would destroy Gaza. He said Jews should take over Gaza and West Bank cities alike.
Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has also repeated his promise that “there will be no Palestinian state; this place belongs to us.”
And security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said in August that Israeli forces should “kill 30 or 40” people in Gaza every night because they are “not even people”.
UN expert warns: no future for Palestine
The settler onslaught on the West Bank is wrecking the chances of a Palestinian state, according to a top United Nations legal expert.
Special rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese said the expansion of settlements was part of Israel’s “extermination machinery” along with the genocide and apartheid laws.
Albanese has been calling for action against Israel for more than two years, and criticised governments and the UN itself for their inaction. “I have been shouting at the top of my lungs … this is the end of a Palestinian state,” she said. “Israel should be isolated and sanctioned.”
Attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have escalated to an all-time high. The Israeli army has emptied whole refugee camps, destroyed homes and killed more than 1,000 since October 2023. Cattle are killed, olive groves burnt and harvests stolen.
Israel has put out to tender its plans for thousands more homes to be built in the West Bank and is set to transfer £1 million to support illegal settler outposts in Palestinian areas.
A major project called “E1” is under way to develop a band of settlements on the eastern edge of Jerusalem that would split the West Bank in two.
The UK announced its sanctions at the same time as 11 other countries. In a joint statement they said that E1 would undermine “the prospect of the two-state solution by driving a wedge through the West Bank and harming the territorial contiguity of the Palestinian Territories.
“At a time of grave instability in the West Bank with unprecedented levels of violence by settlers against civilians, and serious restrictions on the Palestinian economy, this decision is even more concerning.”
But none, including Britain, has extended their measures to include the Israeli economy itself. Israel has been pushing settlement expansion for 30 years, since the mid-1990s when there were about 110,000 settlers. Now there are more than 700,000 in settlements and illegal outposts.
All sectors of Israeli society, from banks and finance to industry, construction, commerce and the universities, are deeply integrated into the occupation and should be targeted..
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign said the measures “are too little too late for those who have already paid the cost of Britain’s deep complicity in Israel’s occupation … They must be followed swiftly by serious and further action.”
