12 countries including France, UK say to sanction trade from Israeli settlements

Twelve countries, including the UK, Canada and France, on Tuesday said they would slap sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, after increasing attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian villages in the occupied territory.

Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden also plan to limit trade with the settlements, the nations’ foreign ministers said in a joint statement.

Ireland and Spain have already taken measures against trade with Israeli settlements, and France has for weeks been pushing for a similar decision from the European Union, Israel’s leading trading partner, but has been blocked by some members.

“The government of Israel’s actions in the West Bank are undermining the possibility of a two-state solution,” the 12 ministers said, referring to a plan under which two states — one Israeli and one Palestinian — would live peacefully side by side.

“The situation is rapidly deteriorating amid unprecedented levels of settler violence and settlement expansion,” they warned.

“The government of Israel must immediately halt the expansion of settlements and civilian administrative powers, ensure accountability for settler violence, and investigate allegations against Israeli forces.”

The ministers said the 12 countries “confirm their intention to introduce national and/or support European restrictions on trade in goods with settlements which are illegal under international law, or that they are actively considering these and other measures, in accordance with their national procedures.”

The UK will stand up for what’s right: foreign secretary

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband accused the Israeli government of turning a “blind eye” to what he called “ethnic cleansing” by settlers in the West Bank.

In a video statement, he called the situation in Palestine a “moral emergency” and said that there is increasing evidence of war crimes in Gaza.

“We are witnessing unprecedented settler terrorism in the West Bank,” he said.

“The British government has come to the same conclusion as the former prime minister of Israel and others, that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists.”

He noted that Tel Aviv had not only ignored these developments, but that members and officials had made statements or taken actions enabling the forced displacement of Palestinians.

“We will not stand by. We’re going to be stronger in standing up for what is right, and bolder in the action we take,” Miliband said, adding that London’s north star was the two-state solution.

“Today, we are calling out the occupation of Palestine as unlawful,” he added.

“We are banning the import of goods from illegal settlements, we’re taking action on services to target those who finance, facilitate or construct new settlements, and we’re banning advertisements of settlement properties and land.”

Israeli court rejects petition to halt key settlement project

An Israeli court rejected a bid from rights groups to halt the development of a settlement in the occupied West Bank that would severely undermine the territorial contiguity of a future Palestinian state.

The Jerusalem District Court said in a ruling it had dismissed the motion, which aimed to stall the publication of tenders for the settlement east of Jerusalem.

Israel’s construction and housing ministry opened a tender for construction of more than 1,200 housing units in July, leading NGOs to file motions against it.

The E1 plan — approved by Israel last year after decades of being frozen, notably due to pressure from successive US administrations — would further isolate Israeli-occupied east Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank. Six European countries, including the UK and France, called on Israel to halt the project in August.

The Israeli judge ruled that “no irreversible physical changes are imminent, and adequate legal safeguards are in place” for the development project, arguing that courts could bring a permanent ruling on the project as a whole, well before physical construction begins on the ground.

The petitioners, including Israeli NGO Peace Now, had argued that the project would lead to the eviction of hundreds of Palestinians.

“The court’s decision plays into the government’s hands, allowing it to use the final months of its term to establish facts on the ground that will create a destructive reality which will be extremely difficult to reverse,” the NGOs said in a statement reacting to the ruling.