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British foreign minister Ed Miliband condemned as “regrettable and damaging” Israel’s decision to order the closure of the UK’s consulate in Jerusalem as retaliation for London-led Western sanctions over settler violence.
“We anticipated this might happen because we saw other countries, the Dutch, for example, who had announced sanctions, who had seen these reprisals from Israel. I think they’re regrettable and damaging,” Miliband told BBC Radio on Wednesday.
Israel ordered the closure on Tuesday after 12 countries including the UK and France announced they would sanction trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, following a surge in attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Israel said it would also expel British representatives at a centre monitoring the US-brokered ceasefire plan in Gaza, bar British training for Palestinian Authority forces and ban 12 Britons, mostly members of parliament, from visiting the country.
Miliband rejected suggestions that the sanctions would impact intelligence cooperation with Israel.
“We have important intelligence and security relationships with Israel and I’m confident they will continue,” he said, declining to go into details.
“And I was very clear yesterday that we do believe in working with our Israeli partners when it comes to the threats they face from Iran,” he added.
Miliband also dismissed the criticism of the sanctions by Britain’s chief rabbi.
Ephraim Mirvis on Tuesday called the measures “little more than political flag-bearing.”
He said it was a “truly a dark day for British Jews,” predicting that the measures “will succeed only in bolstering the very extremism they seek to target.”
Several antisemitic attacks in London this year have targeted synagogues and other Jewish sites.
Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden joined the UK and France in confirming plans to introduce restrictions on trade with settlements on Tuesday, according to a joint statement from the countries’ foreign ministers.
“The Government of Israel’s actions in the West Bank are undermining the possibility of a two-State solution,” the statement reads, adding that there have been “unprecedented levels of settler violence and settlement expansion.”
“Together, we are resolute: the two-state solution must be protected, and we will take action in pursuit of a just and lasting peace,” it continued.
It comes after the Israeli government last month opened up tenders for the construction of around 1,200 housing units in the West Bank, drawing widespread condemnation from the international community and human rights groups.
The units, destined for the E1 settlement area, would further isolate East Jerusalem from the rest of the territory.
The West Bank
The West Bank has been occupied by Israel since 1967 and has seen a surge in violence since the start of the war in Gaza, which broke out following the Hamas militant group’s attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023.
According to a report from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, there were around 737,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as of October 2024.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.
Additional sources • AFP
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