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HomeRead, Watch, ListenWorld
AnalysisWorld

UK’s dramatic policy change on Israel-Palestine

Britain has announced sanctions on West Bank settlements, sparking a diplomatic confrontation with the Netanyahu government
Colin Shindler
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Pro-Palestine Rally Outside Foreign Commonwealth Development Office

Pro-Palestine rally on September 1 in London, days before Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced sanctions on settlements (Kristian Buus/In Pictures via Getty Images)

Published: 9 September 2026

Last updated: 10 September 2026

“The impact of settler violence and terrorism has been catastrophic for Palestinian communities. Settlement expansion and attempts to create irreversible divisions on the ground threaten peace, security and the prospects for a viable Palestinian state. Britain will not stand back and accept the destruction of a two-state solution.”

So stated the new British Foreign Secretary, Ed Miliband, on 19 August. It was the forerunner to a dramatic change in policy.

This week, Miliband renounced Britain’s bystander status on the Israel-Palestine imbroglio and introduced product bans and sanctions against settlements.

The Netanyahu coalition responded by closing the British Consulate in Jerusalem. It has also closed entry to Israel for 12 MPs on Labour’s Left and the Greens.

Miliband spoke as “a proud British Jew” who “unwaveringly” supported the state of Israel and its right to defend itself, but vehemently opposed the actions of its government. He expressed gratitude to Britain for taking in his family, which had fled Belgium before the Nazi advance in 1940 and to the State of Israel for giving sanctuary to his grandmother.

The main charge is that Israeli construction in the E1 region, which connects the Palestinian population centres of Jerusalem, Ma’ale Adumim and Ramallah, will prevent territorial contiguity – and thereby wreck the basis for a two-state solution. It had been strongly opposed by the Europeans for decades, and now with an election looming, it has been resurrected by Netanyahu.

Miliband noted that more settlements have been initiated under the current Netanyahu coalition than in the past 20 years. He also noted that former prime minister Ehud Olmert and Ephraim Sneh, a minister in Yitzhak Rabin’s government, termed the occupation “unlawful”.

140 Labour MPs recently asked for a ban on settlement produce. Miliband heard them. He banned imports of settlement produce and placed sanctions on those who have facilitated the building of settlements – a ban that has also been joined by Canada, France and nine other countries. He also sanctioned Hezbollah’s financial arm and increased sanctions on Iran. An opponent of BDS, Miliband rejected claims that Israel would become a pariah state.

In the House of Commons, Miliband was accompanied by the prime minister and the cabinet. There was however, a surprising agreement on the issues by the major parties and a condemnation of settler violence on the West Bank by the Father of the House, Sir Edward Leigh – a longtime member of the Conservative Friends of Israel.

The West Bank, however, in 2026 is an archipelago of Palestinian locations and not one of two states existing side by side. The idea of territorial contiguity began to dissipate 25 years ago when Ariel Sharon was Prime Minister, and Netanyahu was his Minister of Finance. While a two-state solution and partition remains the only principled answer to the conflict, the meaning and contours of a viable Palestinian state are still up in the air.

The irony of Miliband’s address was that he spoke for many British Jews whereas Jewish establishment organisations did not

In addition, the quantity of settlement produce imported to the UK is very small. The ban will probably be difficult to enforce and the Netanyahu government will no doubt find a way around it. What was important, however, was the symbolic value of Miliband’s actions.

It can certainly be argued that the attitude of the Burnham government towards the Israeli government is more radical than that of Keir Starmer. But the Likud governments since Netanyahu’s election in 2009 have rapidly radicalised to the extent that the disciples of Meir Kahane now sit in the Israeli government

In Britain in 1948, the further Left that you went, the more Zionist you were. Could it be that the government of Ben-Gurion, Sharett and Golda Meir then was fundamentally different in terms of its Jewish values and its understanding of Zionism compared to that of Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir today? Is it no wonder that liberal and social democratic non-Jewish friends of Israel have reached the end of their political tether?

In the heated atmosphere of a forthcoming election – with the Netanyahu coalition continually being outstripped in all polls by support for the opposition, led by Eisenkot, Bennett and Golan – the Likud and the far Right are making provocative claims in the hope that it will attract voters to a party’s standard. This cultivation applies in particular to the half a million settlers on the West Bank excluding East Jerusalem. Around 60 per cent of the West Bank population are eligible to vote, and this accounts for 5 or 6 seats in the Knesset.

But perhaps the most bizarre utterance was that of Ben-Gvir in calling for recognition of the Argentinian claim to the Falkland Islands, which have been British since 1833.

Ben-Gvir believes that history can be bent to fit a political agenda, and if it can also be embroidered with fake facts – then all the better. He mentioned that the British were exploiting this situation in exploring oil fields off the Falklands, which, he claimed, rightfully belonged to Argentina. He forgot to mention that the British were being partnered with the Israeli Navitas Petroleum company. He also forgot to mention that the Argentinian junta that initiated the Falklands war in 1982 murdered 30,000 people, including a disproportionate number of Jews opposed to the military regime.

If all rational argument fails, then the prevailing wisdom is to accuse the Burnham government of being antisemitic – as did the evangelical US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckerbee – despite the fact that Miliband stated in Parliament that he is proudly Jewish. It replicates Putin’s claim that neo-Nazis are directing the war in Kyiv – even though Volodymir Zelensky is Jewish.

In its response beforehand, Jewish leadership in the UK tried to be all things to all British Jews. While it condemned settler violence, it took no stand on the settlements themselves. It demoted any public support for a two-state solution. All this despite the fact that according to several surveys over many years, a majority of British Jews have consistently opposed the settlement drive on the West Bank. In essence, Jewish leadership found it impossible to articulate a credible explanation of events under the hammer blows of Ben-Gvir and his friends. It grew vague and incoherent when it came to commenting on the actions of the Netanyahu coalition.

Netanyahu’s policies have aided the far Left in the UK in promoting criticism of 1948 over criticism of 1967 – that the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 was the root of all evil and not the conquest of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967. The excuse of Jewish organisations was that the measures proposed by Miliband would bring the far Left’s approach into mainstream politics. Miliband’s speech demonstrated that the Labour Party had not been influenced by the far Left – and even pro-Palestinian MPs embraced the two-state solution.

The irony of Miliband’s address was that he spoke for many British Jews whereas Jewish establishment organisations did not. They relied instead on Labour’s Conservative opponents who actually agreed with much of Miliband’s approach, but many looked decidedly sheepish in expressing the views of Jewish leadership.

Arguments can, of course, be made that Miliband’s reset will help Netanyahu in the coming election or that it was insensitive to have made it in the days before Rosh Hashanah. But Miliband’s speech feels like a watershed and a breakthrough – but clearly only time will tell. For establishment Jewish organisations, their subservience to solely thinking inside the box has produced a denouement of catastrophic proportions. History will not remember them kindly.

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About the author

Colin Shindler

Colin Shindler

Colin Shindler is an emeritus professor of Israel Studies at SOAS, University of London. He is the author of several books about Israel: the latest "A Forever War: Israel, Palestine and the Struggles for Statehood" was published in 2026.

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Comments3

  • Avatar of Mark Ian

    Mark Ian10 September at 01:17 am

    The Reality is that the Palestinians Overwhelmingly Reject as a State only the West Bank and Gaza .
    The most moderate want a Return to the 1947 UN Partition with compensation.
    But the moderates cannot fight the Jihadi just as Holland Belgium and France fell to the Nazis in a few weeks .
    And the Jihadi want from the River to the sea Palestine to be Arab .
    The Palestine Education and Media deny or ignore the Holocaust the Land Sharing Plans of 1937 1938 and November 29 1947 and the severe immigration restrictions of Britain proclaimed in the White Paper of 1939 .

    The Islamic World including Turkey has offered Refuge to millions of Syrian Refugees from the Barbaric Assad Regime and equally Barbaric ISIS but in WW2 proclaimed it would not accept large numbers of Jewish People and Turkey was close to Nazi Occupied Eastern Europe .
    So The British Labour Party is proposing an already Rejected Peace Plan .
    Criticisms of the Gaza Civilian Toll and the Gangster attacks on Unarmed Palestinians are Understandable but boycott of Goods from all Jewish Communities is Counterproductive as the Jews and Arabs have to live together in Non-Violence.

  • Avatar of Avi Lehrer

    Avi Lehrer9 September at 12:10 pm

    As a Jerusalem resident, I fear that the timing of the UK’s sanctions on settlements etc will lead to greater support for Netanyahu than had the UK waited till after the Israeli elections. The British Labour government is therfore helping the Israeli right wing. I hope I’m wrong.

  • Avatar of Bette Rabie

    Bette Rabie9 September at 10:27 am

    Brave and true and well put as usual, Colin.