The UK is drafting sanctions to ban trade with Israeli settlements in the West
Bank, indicating Prime Minister Burnham seeks a tougher stance on an issue
important to left-leaning Labour voters. Foreign Secretary Miliband is weighing
options over the next few weeks to increase pressure on Israel’s settlement
expansion, including creating a new sanctions mechanism to block goods and
services linked to West Bank settlements and expanding human-rights sanctions to
cover obstruction of humanitarian aid. Miliband may also explicitly back the
International Court of Justice’s 2024 non-binding opinion that Israel’s
occupation of territories the UK recognizes as Palestinian is illegal.
