“FRENZIED EXPANSION” OF SETTLEMENTS
France, also introducing a ban on West Bank products, cited the “frenzied expansion” of settlements there and a “flare up of violence” as the reasons for it taking action.
But US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that the sanctions could be destabilising for the West Bank, adding that Washington would not follow Britain, France and Canada in blocking imports from Israeli settlements.
The main produce from West Bank settlements is agricultural, including dates, citrus fruits, herbs and wine, and makes up only a tiny fraction of Israel’s total exports.
Given the small volume of exports from the settlements, the trade bans are largely symbolic, and will not dent larger bilateral trade flows, but are part of wider efforts to reinforce support for the two-state solution, just as Israel announced plans for 1,000 new West Bank homes on Tuesday.
Miliband, who became Britain’s foreign minister in July, went further, saying the UK believes that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank.
“Today we refuse to be bystanders to further suffering and to the destruction of the two-state solution,” Miliband said, referring to Britain’s long-held support for the idea, which Israel opposes.
The focus of recent concerns is Israel’s E1 settlement project in the West Bank not far from Jerusalem, which would cut across land the Palestinians seek for a future independent state.
