UK’s Trade Ban on Israeli Settlements ‘Falls Far Short of Legal Obligations’

The UK government has been urged to go further on sanctions against Israeli settlements in the West Bank, with senior lawyers warning that current measures “fall far short” of Britain’s obligations under international law.

Foreign secretary Ed Miliband last week announced a ban on the trade of goods with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, a move seen as a major shift in UK-Israel relations. Canada and France announced similar actions the same day.

But 130 top lawyers and legal academics have written to prime minister Andy Burnham to say the measures do not meet the UK’s legal obligations, including those set out in a 2024 ruling by the International Court of Justice.

The letter’s signatories include former Lord Justice of Appeal Sir Alan Moses, prominent barrister Michael Mansfield KC and Ralph Wilde, a professor of international law at UCL.

They said they welcomed the new measures but that the UK must now extend sanctions to more sectors of Israel’s economy, prevent public bodies investing in settlements and enforce a full arms embargo.

Miliband last week said the UK would “continue to support important and valued trade” with Israel outside of illegal settlements, adding that he “wholeheartedly” opposed the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.

Wilde told Novara Media that Miliband’s position was misguided: “It is Israel that maintains the occupation, not the settlers. The settlements are integrated into Israel ‘proper’. They cannot be carved off. It’s impossible to disentangle the economic activity in the settlements from the rest of Israel.”

The letter notes that the new sanctions don’t go as far as those taken by the UK against Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. These encompassed all aspects of the Russian economy – including banks and energy companies – on the basis that these institutions were enabling the war.

“By contrast to the improperly narrow approach to the sanctions regime adopted towards Israel, the UK’s Russia sanctions are not confined to economic activity in occupied Ukrainian territory,” the letter said.

On Monday B’Tselem, a leading Israeli human rights group, reported that the Israeli government was trying to “eliminate” the conditions necessary for Palestinian life in the West Bank.

Its report found Israel is “dramatically intensifying its attacks on every aspect of Palestinian life” there, including “the ability to get to work, take children to school or university, and receive medical treatment.”