The United Kingdom unveiled sweeping new measures targeting Israeli settlements in the West Bank on Tuesday, triggering an immediate diplomatic rupture with Israel and a sharp warning from a senior Trump administration official.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced Tuesday, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s approval, that Israel would close the British Consulate in Jerusalem and impose a series of countermeasures in response to the UK sanctions.
The Israeli measures also include removing British representatives from the International Gaza Support Center in Kiryat Gat, ending British activities training Palestinian Authority forces in the West Bank and denying entry to 12 British elected officials and other British nationals whom Israel accused of antisemitic or anti-Israel activity.
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"Measures against Israel will not go unanswered," Sa’ar said. "Whoever acts against Israel, Israel will act against them, and they will lose their influence and relevance in the region."
The escalation came hours after Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told Parliament that Britain would ban imports of goods from Israeli settlements, target companies and individuals facilitating settlement expansion and refuse licenses for arms and other exports that materially contribute to the occupation.
The move is part of a coordinated push with France, Canada and other European partners amid what the governments described Tuesday as "unprecedented levels of settler violence and settlement expansion" in the West Bank, including Israel’s E1 project, which they argue threatens the viability of a future Palestinian state. The measures come just weeks before world leaders gather for the UN General Assembly in New York and less than two months before Israel’s Oct. 27 election, adding diplomatic and political stakes to an already strained relationship between Israel and several of its traditional Western allies.
At the same time, the foreign ministers recognized Israel’s "legitimate security interests" and reiterated their condemnation of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack, which they described as "the worst antisemitic massacre since the Holocaust." They said their objective remained a two-state solution allowing Israel and "a sovereign, democratic and viable Palestinian state" to live side by side in peace and security.
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The timing has also become a political issue inside Britain. An unnamed Labour MP told The Telegraph that Prime Minister Andy Burnham had faced pressure from colleagues worried about Gaza-related campaigning and losing seats to the Greens, while Israeli officials have accused London of trying to influence Israel’s election — claims the British government rejects as it frames the measures as an effort to preserve the two-state solution.
"Today, I announce that the official view of the British government is that the occupation is unlawful," Miliband told lawmakers Tuesday.
Miliband opened the statement by describing himself as a "proud British Jew" with "the deepest gratitude to the State of Israel," recalling how his grandmother found refuge there after losing her husband and 60 other family members at the hands of the Nazis.
He stressed that the measures were aimed at settlements rather than Israel itself.
"The sanctions regime will target illegal settlement and settlement expansion. Not Israel," Miliband said, adding that Britain would continue to support trade with Israel inside the Green Line and that he "wholeheartedly" opposed the broader Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
Miliband also condemned rising antisemitism in Britain, saying, "Holding British Jews responsible for the actions of the Israeli government is anti-Semitism, plain and simple."
He reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism, called for Hamas to disarm and dismantle its terrorist infrastructure under the U.S. -led 20-point Gaza plan, and announced sanctions against Hezbollah financing institution Al-Qard Al-Hassan. He also said Britain was reimposing major economic sanctions on Iran and would continue security cooperation with Israel against shared threats.
The measures drew immediate criticism from US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who warned in an interview with BBC World Service Newsday that Britain could face economic repercussions in the United States.
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"I think without a doubt there will be," Huckabee said when asked whether the UK should expect consequences.
Huckabee pointed to Florida and other states with anti-boycott laws, arguing that British companies could face restrictions on doing business there.
"If the Brits do something like this with a partner, Israel, then they will not be able to do business in Florida," he said, warning of a "huge economic impact on British businesses."
He also challenged Britain’s policy on substantive grounds, arguing that Israel is permitted under the Oslo agreements to build communities in Area C and predicting that the sanctions would have "a very negative effect that does not meet whatever goal maybe that the Brits have."
In a separate portion of the BBC interview, Huckabee said, "I feel like that it's a discrimination against the Israeli government. It's a discrimination against the Jewish people. And I don't understand the rationale."
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Sa’ar also accused London of interfering in Israel’s election campaign and said the settlement sanctions were driven by domestic British politics ahead of the Labour Party conference.
"The British move is morally distorted and constitutes blatant interference in the affairs of a sovereign state and in its electoral process," he said.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog called Britain’s move a "grave miscalculation" Tuesday and argued that it amounted to "gross interference" in Israel’s upcoming election, according to a statement from his office.
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, president and founder of the Tel Aviv-based Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center, also criticized the measures, arguing that their economic impact would be limited while their political consequences could be significant.
"These sanctions are not serious economic policy; they are political theatre staged at Israel’s expense," Darshan-Leitner told Fox News Digital.She disputed Britain’s legal characterization of the territory, saying, "The territories are disputed, not sovereign Palestinian land, and their future must be negotiated by the parties under the Oslo framework."
Darshan-Leitner also argued that because little of the roughly $8 billion in annual UK-Israel trade originates in West Bank settlements, the measures would have little direct economic effect while potentially influencing Israel’s political debate ahead of elections.
Miliband, however, argued that failing to act would allow continued settlement expansion to destroy the possibility of a two-state solution. He focused particularly on Israel’s E1 project east of Jerusalem, which Britain and numerous other governments say threatens the territorial viability of a future Palestinian state.
Sa'ar rejected Britain’s position that the E1 settlement project threatens the viability of a future Palestinian state.
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The policy has also exposed divisions within Britain.
Conservative lawmaker Tom Tugendhat acknowledged in Parliament that illegal settlements were wrong and that some settlers had committed "outrageous abuses" against Palestinians, but argued that the government’s response risked hurting ordinary Israelis and Palestinians.
"What we reject here is not the intent, but the performative politics," Tugendhat said, warning against acting without sufficiently broad international support.
Miliband rejected arguments that the measures were intended to isolate Israel.
"Our argument is not with the people of Israel, with whom the UK has unshakable bonds," he said. "Our argument is with the conduct of its government."
