UK to adopt tougher stance on Israel with illegal settlements trade ban

What Happened

UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband will announce on Tuesday what the article describes as a broad reset of Britain’s relations with Israel. The package includes a ban on trade in goods and some services from illegal Israeli settlements, with investment in such settlements to become unlawful and the ban extending to financing and advertising. Miliband is also expected to use firmer language on humanitarian conditions in Gaza and to reassert support for a two-state solution. The article attributes to Israeli sources a threat of reprisals over Miliband’s earlier claim that the Israel Defense Forces has held back aid into Gaza, a claim the Israeli foreign ministry denies. UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham spoke to Donald Trump and Gulf allies including Qatar on Monday. Polling by Opinium and the European Council on Foreign Relations shows 46% of UK adults support a ban on settlement trade while 18% oppose it. Total UK-Israel trade in goods and services in 2025 was £6bn. The UK has regarded all Israeli civilian settlements built on territories captured in the 1967 Six-Day War as illegal under international law, and settlement products have not received preferential tariff treatment since 2005.

Key Actors

Why It Matters

The move shifts the UK from rhetorical support for a two-state solution to concrete trade measures against illegal Israeli settlements, aligning with a 2024 ICJ advisory opinion requiring states not to aid or assist Israeli occupation. It places Britain at odds with the United States and Israel, risks retaliatory trade measures, and raises the stakes ahead of the E1 settlement project east of Jerusalem, which the article says is poised to cut the occupied West Bank in two from November.

Watch For

Miliband’s statement to MPs on Tuesday, including whether the settlement ban will require primary legislation or a statutory instrument. Monitor Israeli reprisals, the progress of the E1 settlement project in November, the 27 October Israeli election, and whether the UK joins South Africa at the ICJ over alleged breaches of the court’s previous rulings.