Canada, UK, France Ban Israeli Settlement Goods — SkimNews
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- Canada, the U.K., and France jointly announced bans on trade in goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, one year after the three countries recognized a Palestinian state, with U.K. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband noting the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain, and Norway have already imposed or are implementing similar bans.
- The U.K. will impose sanctions on specific companies and individuals providing construction, infrastructure, financing, or real estate services for settlement expansion, with Miliband warning they will "face the full force of U.K. sanctions."
- Miliband told Parliament the British government agrees there is "ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists," citing a "dramatic increase in settler violence" alongside Israel's tender for 1,200 settler homes in the E1 area as the trigger.
- Israel retaliated by ordering the immediate closure of the British consulate in East Jerusalem, expelling U.K. representatives from a joint military centre monitoring the Gaza ceasefire, ending U.K. training of Palestinian Authority security forces, and barring 12 elected U.K. officials and other British citizens from entry.
- Jewish leaders in Canada and the U.K. condemned the measures — Noah Shack of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said Canada "chose to follow the United Kingdom's lead" to "appease the most extreme elements of society," while U.K. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis called it "truly a dark day for British Jews."
- Foreign ministers from 12 countries — including Canada, the U.K., France, and nine other European nations — issued a parallel joint statement through Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, pledging to protect the two-state solution; U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the White House had no comment.
Why it matters: Canada, the U.K., and France coordinated settlement-goods bans with pledges of support from at least six more European countries, targeting not just imports but the financing, construction, and real estate backing settlement expansion. Israel retaliated by closing the British consulate and ousting U.K. staff from the Gaza ceasefire monitoring centre.
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