UK’s FM Miliband boasts that sanctions on settlers have spurred global action

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband on Monday called the suffering imposed on Palestinians by Israel’s government “a stain on the conscience of the world” as he denounced “ethnic cleansing” in the West Bank, and “war crimes in Gaza.”

Received with standing applause at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, Miliband said that the government headed by Prime Minister Andy Burnham has reset its approach to Israel and the Palestinians.

“We call out ethnic cleansing by the settler terrorists in the West Bank,” he said, referring to violence by extremist settlers against Palestinians in the territory. “We call out the evidence of war crimes in Gaza. We call out Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.”

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His remarks came amid a deterioration in relations between Israel and the UK, after Miliband announced earlier this month that Britain would ban all dealings with West Bank settlements, along with sweeping sanctions and a range of other punitive measures. Canada, France and other nations announced similar measures.

At the conference, Miliband stressed that the UK would ban trade with Israeli settlements: “We will disrupt the supply lines of British finance, British construction and British services for illegal settlements.”

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He said that London’s decision to sanction Israelis living over the Green Line “mobilized the international community, country after country.”

Miliband also recalled that his own grandmother was given “shelter and sanctuary by Israel” after World War II, saying the “bonds of solidarity between the British people and those who yearn for peace in Israel and Palestine are too strong to be broken.”

The UK’s top diplomat condemned “Hamas’s murderous attack on October 7,” and said his Labour Party “will always recognize the threats Israel faces and stand emphatically against those who seek its destruction.”

At the same time, he said, Hamas’s invasion of Israel in 2023 “cannot justify the suffering the Netanyahu government has inflicted in Gaza and the West Bank. This suffering is a stain on the conscience of the world.”

He also talked tough against the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“We will stand up to prevent a nuclear Iran through economic sanctions,” said Miliband. “We will act against the proxies of Iran. And we will continue to isolate Iran so that they reopen the Strait of Hormuz.”

Israel’s government reacted with fury to the UK settlement ban move and announced a series of retaliatory measures, including the closure of the British consulate in Jerusalem, which serves Palestinians. Other measures ordered by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar included the expulsion of UK representatives from an international Gaza support center and the termination of British activities to train Palestinian Authority security forces.

The West Bank has seen near-daily incidents of settler violence and harassment in recent months. Arrests are rare, and critics have accused the government of condoning or even encouraging the attacks.

Opponents of Israel have accused it of committing genocide in the Gaza war, which was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack. Israel rejects the charge and insists it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities. It points to Hamas using Gaza’s population as human shields, and fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.

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