West Bank<\/a> and Jerusalem. The British embassy in Tel Aviv is where the UK\u2019s ambassador to Israel is based.<\/p>\nWhile most countries regard East Jerusalem as illegally occupied by Israel since the Six Day War in 1967, Israel says Jerusalem is its undivided capital.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnited Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and is under its full sovereignty,\u201d Sa\u2019ar said. \u201cAny foreign activity in the area must be conducted through accepted and agreed channels and without violating Israel\u2019s sovereignty.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"UK](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788933132_831_2386.jpg\")
UK foreign secretary announces sanctions on trade with Israeli West Bank settlements \u2013 video<\/p>\n
Sa\u2019ar also announced entry bans on a number of mostly leftwing MPs including the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, the Your Party MP Zarah Sultana, the Labour MPs Diane Abbott, Naz Shah, John McDonnell and Richard Burgon and the Green MPs Hannah Spencer, Carla Denyer, Si\u00e2n Berry and Ellie Chowns.<\/p>\n
The Israeli government added that longstanding British involvement in the training of Palestinian security forces on the West Bank would be terminated. Britain will also be excluded from the US-led Gaza coordination mission, which is based in Israel.<\/p>\n
The British sanctions were coordinated with 11 other countries, including France and Canada.<\/p>\n
Sa\u2019ar said: \u201cThe British move is morally distorted, \u200band constitutes blatant interference in the affairs of a sovereign state and its electoral process.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIsrael has nothing against the British people. We know that we have many friends in Britain. Unfortunately, a hostile Labour government is in office, systematically acting against the state of Israel, and it has left us with no choice but to finally respond to its hostile actions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gideon Sa\u2019ar, Israel\u2019s foreign minister, described the UK\u2019s actions as \u2018morally distorted\u2019. Photograph: Abir Sultan\/EPA<\/p>\n
Sa\u2019ar said that he \u200bhad coordinated \u200cIsrael\u2019s response \u200bwith the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel will hold an election in late October.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s president, Isaac Herzog, called the ban \u201ca grave miscalculation, a decision that will fall on the wrong side of history\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the current context, it would be a gross interference in the democratic elections of a sovereign nation,\u201d he said. \u201cSanctions are not a solution \u2013 dialogue is. I say to all foreign governments: Stop. Step away from the dead-end of sanctions and boycotts, and turn toward constructive dialogue and toward cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Settlement building and settlement-related violence have increased under the auspices of far-right Israeli ministers in the Netanyahu government who have said publicly that they aim to \u201cbury\u201d a two state solution through their actions.<\/p>\n
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel\u2019s hardline public security minister and a settler leader, called on Netanyahu to recognise Argentina\u2019s claim to the Falkland Islands, a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic known in Argentina as Islas Malvinas.<\/p>\n
Palestinians attend the funeral on Monday of a young man who died after being shot in the head when Israeli settlers raided a village. Photograph: Anadolu\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, a longtime supporter of the settlements, said the British sanctions were \u201cdiscrimination against the Jewish people\u201d. He said the UK could face \u201crepercussions or retaliations\u201d from the US.<\/p>\n
However, in a markedly more muted response, US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said Washington would \u200cnot follow Britain, \u200bFrance and Canada in blocking \u2060imports from Israeli \u200bsettlements in \u200bthe Palestinian \u200bterritory and did not want to see moves that would destabilise the West Bank.<\/p>\n
Israel has been under notice from successive British governments \u2013 both Conservative and Labour \u2013 for years over the risk of international isolation and potential sanctions related to continuing settlement activity in the occupied territories. These warnings have becomelouder in recent years as violent settler activity has escalated.<\/p>\n
The UK\u2019s Labour government previously sanctioned some Israeli settlers and illegal outposts over violence against Palestinians and illegal development in the West Bank.<\/p>\n
In a change of Britain\u2019s position, Miliband, the foreign secretary, said on Tuesday that the UK regards Israel\u2019s occupation of the West Bank, and not just the settlements, as illegal.<\/p>\n
The tougher stance is likely to be welcomed by many Labour voters and lawmakers, who have urged the government to go further in sanctioning Israel and supporting Palestinians.<\/p>\n
Difficulties to establishing an EU-wide approach, coordinated with the UK, had led to countries making individual decisions on a widening sanctions regime that culminated in the joint statement by 12 countries that they were setting in train the process of far harder-hitting sanctions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel has ordered the closure of the British consulate in occupied East Jerusalem in response to sweeping UK…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764733,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-764732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764732\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"UK](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1788933131_77_1920.jpg\")
UK condemns Israeli settler ethnic cleansing in West Bank – The Latest<\/p>\n