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UK accuses Israeli ‘terrorists’ of ethnic cleansing in West Bank with government backing

Settler terrorists supported by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government are committing ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, Ed Miliband has said, in the UK’s starkest condemnation since the foundation of the Israeli state. Andy Burnham, the prime minister, said he would “not stand by” as horrific suffering continued, writing in the Guardian that for too long the UK had been hesitant to act, “fearful of being accused of being anti-Israel”. In the Commons, the foreign secretary said the government would now take the official position that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank was unlawful in its entirety, as he announced sweeping sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements. The dramatic shift in the UK’s position comes after a summer of intense diplomacy against a backdrop of increasing settler violence in the West Bank, which has resulted in 12 nations – including France and Canada – announcing they would impose sanctions. In a joint statement Burnham, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney said: “The time has come to take further action to uphold our commitment to protect the two-state solution, our interests and to stand up for our values, before it is too late.” In response, the Israeli foreign minister, Gideon Saar, announced the closure of the UK consulate in Jerusalem and that 12 British MPs and activists – including Jeremy Corbyn and Labour MP Diane Abbott – would be banned from entering Israel. Saar accused Miliband of “outrageous lies” and said the UK government was “systematically working against the state of Israel”. Washington’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, warned that the US could take retaliatory action over trade. However, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said Washington would “obviously” not follow the UK’s course of action, and did not want to see the West Bank destabilised, but declined to comment further. Burnham had briefed Donald Trump on the plan in advance. In his statement to parliament, Miliband said the UK government would enact: An import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories and a new ban for arms licences and other exports that “materially contribute to the occupation”. A comprehensive sanctions regime against providing services such as construction or financing for Israeli settlements and a ban on advertising them in the UK. Personal sanctions against key individuals accused of promoting settler violence. A new ban for arms licences and other exports that “materially contribute to the occupation”. The foreign secretary said the UK’s actions would show that “Britain is not silent in the face of deep injustice, and nor is it powerless”. In an emotional statement, he described the agony he had heard from Palestinians in the West Bank whose homes had been destroyed and from doctors in Gaza who had seen children dying waiting for medical treatment. The UK’s actions have been made increasingly urgent by Israel’s plans to expand the E1 settlement project east of Jerusalem, which could in effect cut off the north from the south of the West Bank, threatening the viability of any future Palestinian state. Ministers expect the legislation to enforce the trade ban and sanctions to be in place within nine months, although they could be subject to legal challenge, which would result in a delay. Miliband stopped short of describing Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide, as some on the left have demanded, saying the UK would wait for the determination of the international courts, but that there was evidence of “war crimes”. Speaking in the Commons, he said: “The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists. “All too often the Israeli government has turned a blind eye to this and worse, members of it have made statements and taken actions to support the forced displacement of Palestinians. “I recognise the gravity of saying this, but the truth is the least the people who face such suffering deserve. And it should be the prelude to justice.” Miliband suggested that Keir Starmer had been reluctant to take action against West Bank settlers during his time as prime minister. “I’ll say very bluntly we should have acted earlier. And it has taken the new prime minister to come in and recognise the gravity of the situation,” he told MPs. Burnham, who apologised for Labour’s stance on Gaza when he became prime minister, attempting to shore up votes on the party’s progressive flank, also said the previous government had been too slow to act. Writing in the Guardian , he said: “We have called for years for a two-state solution in the Middle East, but we must recognise that those words are meaningless unless we back them up with action. For too long, we have been hesitant to act, fearful of being accused of being anti-Israel.” Miliband said he was taking the action as foreign secretary but also as a “proud British Jew” with relatives who had found safety in Israel after the Holocaust. “I am proud of my Jewishness and unwavering in my support for the state of Israel,” he said. “And there is absolutely no contradiction between this and my support for the state of Palestine. Indeed, quite the opposite. The two-state solution is based on an explicit belief that the only route to security for both peoples is to live side by side in peaceful coexistence with freedom, security and self-determination.” The foreign secretary said that to respond to threats against Jews around the world, the UK would also impose sanctions on Lebanese Hezbollah’s financing arm, Al-Qard al-Hassan, and reimpose major economic sanctions on Iran in line with the EU and US. The action marked the beginning of a new approach towards Israel and Palestine, he said, one that not only condemned but took action. “Our argument is not with the people of Israel, with whom the UK has unshakeable bonds. Our argument is with the conduct of its government.” Burnham wrote that the British Jewish community must not be blamed for the actions of the Israeli government. “[It] is wrong, plain and simple. And it is antisemitism, plain and simple,” he said. “I met with the representatives of the Jewish community just last week. I know the fear they live with day by day. My government will stop at nothing to ensure they are safe and to stamp out antisemitism in every part of our society.” The shadow foreign secretary, Tom Tugendhat, said “illegal settlements are wrong” but suggested that Miliband was introducing policies the Foreign Office did not believe would work. Whitehall insiders denied this was the case. The senior Conservative MP also said there was a risk of harming Palestinians who worked in the West Bank and that “the economies of Palestine and Israel were too interconnected” for a ban on goods for illegal settlements to work. But the veteran Tory MP Edward Leigh gave full backing to the sanctions. “I am proud to say as the longest serving member of the Conservative Friends of Israel that I absolutely and fully support what he is doing today because it is about standing up for freedom, for morality and justice for all people in this world,” he said. The move forms part of a broader attempt by Burnham’s government to reset British policy towards Israel, in part to regain the trust among Muslim and progressive voters in the UK they lost in the early days of the conflict. It was overwhelmingly welcomed by Labour MPs, many of whom have been struggling with the issue in their constituencies, although some sounded a note of caution about the potential impact on local Jewish communities. Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the foreign affairs select committee, said: “At last! I am so very happy to see a British government – a Labour British government – finally doing the right thing and taking a strong stance … no longer a bystander wringing their hands.”

Ed Miliband has overturned decades of Foreign Office inertia on illegal Israeli settlements

The indefatigable ability of UK Foreign Office ministers over decades to issue boilerplate statements of concern about the extension of illegal settlements in Israel has long been a matter of ridicule. Even some of the Conservative ministers who issued them, notably Alan Duncan and Alistair Burt, have agreed. Duncan described the UK stance towards settlements as weak and naive, while Burt wondered at the ability of the Foreign Office to find new forms of diplomatic condemnation that never amounted to any specific action. Margaret Thatcher, often torn as prime minister between her natural sympathy for Israel and her fear of the Gulf states falling under the sway of the Soviet Union, similarly expressed her anger at the settlements. But in the face of the Israeli disillusionment with a two-state solution – to which the UK had been committed at the UN since 1946, if not before – the UK produced little practical policy to prevent the spread of Israel’s illegal settlements. The UK-Israel trade agreement prevented preferential tariffs applying to goods coming from territories brought under Israeli administration after June 1967. The business department also advised companies not to trade with the settlements – but many simply ignored the advice or, to secure the preferential tariff, relabelled their goods as from Israel. The then trade minister Chris Bryant told the business select committee in June it was very difficult to be certain of the origin of goods. At the same time, the legal advice was that the UK regime could place sanctions on entities only if they were linked to settler violence, but could not put a contractor under sanctions simply for working on settlements. It was this unhappy moral and legal mess that Ed Miliband inherited. As soon as he took office as foreign secretary, he said he refused to be a bystander to further suffering and the destruction of the two-state solution that settlement expansion represented. In this he had the support of the prime minister, Andy Burnham. Above all, Miliband felt that the UK could not feign powerlessness, and to do so, or pay lip service to action, would prove disastrous to Israel’s own future. He was perhaps the only front-rank Labour politician who could push this argument through at such pace, overturning the inertia and caution built into Foreign Office legal advice. His Jewish heritage – his mother, Marion Kozak, was a Holocaust survivor who fled to Israel – his life growing up with the Palestinian question and empathy for those subjected to antisemitism put him in a near unimpeachable position to adopt the role of Israel’s critical friend. The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, might this week say the Labour government is gripped by Jew-hatred, a charge he laid at Miliband’s door knowing he is Jewish, but Miliband’s riposte is simple. The best route to Israel’s security lay in Palestinian self-determination and the introduction of the two-state solution in its fullest form. To equate Israel only with the current Likud-led government as too many Conservatives have been prone to do, was a category error, he said: “Holding Jewish people responsible for the actions of the Israeli government is antisemitism, plain and simple.” He is thus the first UK foreign secretary to describe what is happening in the West Bank as ethnic cleansing, and in so doing to in effect to accuse Israel of turning a blind eye to acts that amount to war crimes. Miliband also ended the two years of delay in responding to the international court of justice advisory opinion in June 2024 that the occupation is unlawful. In what he admitted was an overdue statement of reality, he accepted the ICJ opinion that the occupation, and not just the settlements, were so designated. Accepting the ICJ opinion arguably places stronger obligations on the UK government to not assist the occupation. It may help to explain why the trade ban extends into services such as providing insurance for illegal settlements. The biggest diplomatic rabbit Miliband pulled from the hat was the agreement of France and Canada to impose similar trade bans. France took the lead last year on recognition of Palestine; this year, it is the turn of the UK to lead on following through on the consequences of that recognition. Paris appears to have been persuaded by the UK to stop waiting for the EU to reach an agreement on collective action, since it seemed unlikely the opposition in Germany and indifference in parts of the European Commission would end. A group of countries imposing the trade ban together of course makes Israeli reprisals harder, and serves to underline Israel’s isolation. The perceived weaknesses are obvious. Miliband still left it to the international courts to determine whether a genocide occurred in Gaza, something that might not be adjudicated for at least five years. There was mounting evidence of ethnic cleansing in Gaza, he said, but again it was for the courts to determine if that was so. There is no pledge to protect the international court of justice or the international criminal court from the US drive to render them inoperable. As to a UK arms sales ban, an exemption continues for the sale of parts for F35 jet planes to the main US spares pool – all on the basis the F-35 jets “do not materially support the occupation” – the criteria the foreign secretary has set. Miliband specifically condemned the Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions movement because it targets the whole Israeli economy and not just the occupied territories. The secondary legislation required to make sanctions as wide as envisaged may take as long as nine months, contrasting with the speed with which sanctions were enforced against Russia over the annexation of Crimea. But to focus solely on what is absent is to miss the moment. Duncan, for instance, said: “At last, in the face of state-backed terrorism by illegal settlers, the British government has shown unprecedented moral courage.” There is a risk of a cascading backlash from the White House – but Trump, trapped in a political labyrinth after he was persuaded to attack Iran, has little reason to come to Benjamin Netanyahu’s aid. Miliband has taken a risk, but after more than 70,000 deaths in Gaza, and the two-state solution on life support, it may be time to dare.

Will UK sanctions have any impact on Israel’s ‘settler terrorists’ in West Bank?

The British foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, has announced plans for an import ban on goods from illegal settlements in occupied Palestine and sanctions for companies that “finance or facilitate” the construction, infrastructure and marketing of illegal settlements. He also said “settler terrorists” were perpetrating ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank, while the government turned a blind eye and some members supported it. Britain’s argument was with the government of Israel, not its people, Miliband said. The new measures would target only the expansion and entrenchment of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, not Israel inside the green line – the 1949 armistice boundary, once seen as a possible template for Israel’s border with a future Palestinian state. The measures were prompted in part by Israel’s decision to press ahead with a vast new settlement in the heart of the West Bank, in an area known as E1. The project is designed to “bury the idea of a Palestinian state”, the far-right Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich has said, and Miliband described the issuing of construction tenders in August as a “red line”. He told parliament of his family ties to Israel, including joyful childhood memories of visiting his grandmother, who found a home there after Nazis murdered her husband and 60 other relatives. By acting against ethnic cleansing and settlement expansion, Britain was standing up for its core values, including “rule of law, freedom and self-determination”, and the future of both Israelis and Palestinians, he said, adding that the new measures were designed to “salvage the only course for peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians, the two-state solution”. Why is going after E1 settlement financing a big deal? The trade in goods grown or produced in settlements is a relatively small part of Israel’s export economy, although its exact scale is obscured by a lack of Israeli statistics. Miliband highlighted that the Israeli settler population in occupied Palestine had almost tripled over the past three decades, from 270,000 in 1993 to 770,000 today. That expansion is underpinned by large government subsidies. A trade ban alone would be unlikely to have much impact on the viability of construction that is a government priority, or on the broader Israeli economy. However, plans to place sanctions on any company that finances or facilitates settlement expansion could force Israel’s main banks and insurance companies to chose between their business interests in the UK and those in occupied Palestine. Miliband has not provided details of the new measures, which he said would take between six and nine months to put in place. But they have the potential to slow or stop construction. The activist Yehuda Shaul wrote in a social media post about new building projects: “Companies that bid for tenders on government-led projects, including settlement expansion, must have a financial guarantor. Without the backing of Israeli financial institutions, these projects cannot occur.” What is the status of Israeli settlements and the settler economy? Miliband said Britain recognised Israel’s occupation of Palestine as unlawful, in line with a landmark 2024 ruling from the UN’s international court of justice (ICJ). The UK had previously recognised settlements as illegal, but remained silent on the occupation overall. The ICJ ordered Israel to end its occupation “as rapidly as possible” and make full reparations for its “internationally wrongful acts”. Israeli supporters of the UK measures say they redraw the line between Israel proper and illegally occupied territory, and are a much-needed response to Israeli government policies that are undermining the country. Michael Sfard, one of Israel’s leading human rights lawyers, saidthe measures were “enormously important”. “It redraws the green line and provides a recommitment to international law. Every cent that goes from the UK or other countries to support the economy of settlements is a cent that allows violation of international law,” he said. The former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, whom Miliband quoted in his speech, said: “The British government decision became unavoidable as a result of a continuous effort of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by a large group of Jewish terrorists in the West Bank … Sanctions are directed against the terrorists, not against Israel, and as such they are unavoidable.” What does Miliband’s intervention mean for UK-Israel relations? Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, responded rapidly with a series of measures, including closing the UK the consulate in East Jerusalem, Britain’s diplomatic mission to occupied Palestine. There was fierce condemnation from other Israeli politicians. The far-right minister Ben Gvir called for Israel to recognise Argentinian sovereignty over the Falklands – even before Miliband made his speech. However, Israel holds elections in six weeks, and for months polls have shown Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition stuck below the threshold needed to form a new government. Although none of the leading candidates to replace him oppose the occupation, there has been growing condemnation of violence in the West Bank. A new government would mean a chance to reset ties. Israel may be seeking to deter others from following the UK’s lead, but a dozen countries have already said they are planning similar restrictions on settlement trade, among them Israel’s historical allies Canada and France. A joint statement from the UK prime minister, Andy Burnham; the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney; and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said the action marked “a further turning point in our approach to protecting the two-state solution”. Netanyahu’s policies have already pushed Israel into a position of unprecedented international isolation, and taking similar punitive action against all these countries would only deepen that. What other pressure could be applied? The measures unveiled by Miliband mark the most serious step yet to impose a political and economic price on Israel for settlement expansion. The Israeli government’s furious response belies growing support both inside Israel, and among some of the country’s staunchest supporters abroad, for stronger action to halt violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. This summer dozens of Israelis from the country’s security, political and cultural elite threatened legal action against their government over support for “Jewish terrorism” and an “ideology of ethnic cleansing” in the occupied West Bank. Trump’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, and some Republicans in Congress attacked Miliband before his speech. But the US also has elections this autumn. The Democrat Rahm Emanuel, a former Chicago mayor whose father fought in the Israeli military, used a speech in Tel Aviv to call for broad sanctions on Israel’s financial sector to stop violence against Palestinians. Pressed on the implications of placing sanctions on banks with branches in settlements – which is all of Israel’s major institutions – he told the Jerusalem Post: “America uses its tools to achieve its policy goals. We believe in a two-state solution. You want to pursue a greater Israel? You pay full price for it. Everything. That’s a choice you make.”

Ukraine’s prosecutor general quits after anti-corruption agents raid his office

Ukraine’s prosecutor general has resigned after investigators used ladders to raid his office in connection with a major corruption scandal that threatens to embarrass Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ruslan Kravchenko quit his post on Monday after allegations that some of his officials were involved in large-scale money laundering. They received cash to protect call centres involved in illegal phone scams, it was claimed. Kravchenko, who denies wrongdoing, left his job after meeting Zelenskyy. Ukraine’s president also spoke to the heads of Nabu and Sapo, the two anti-corruption agencies that have uncovered a sprawling criminal scheme involving government officials. Zelenskyy described his conversation with Kravchenko as “fairly long” and said: “I’m sure you understand what we discussed.” The prosecutor’s resignation letter will be sent to Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, he said. Kravchenko is the latest member of Zelenskyy’s inner circle to be linked to corruption. The allegations involve so-called call centres operating in Ukraine. Employees pose as banks, law enforcement agencies or investment advisers, and persuade victims to transfer funds to accounts or crypto wallets under their control. Those targeted include Ukrainians, Russians and EU citizens. According to Nabu, a senior official inside the prosecutor general’s office protected the criminal network and helped it to launder its assets. Each “call centre” paid $7,000 (£5,200) a month in protection money, law enforcement sources told the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper. The bribes ran into millions of dollars, it said, with hundreds of centres believed to employ about 60,000 people across the country. Nabu investigators raided Kravchenko’s office on Friday. Staff refused to let them in so they used ladders to scale a metal gate. Kravchenko was not at work and had disappeared from his home, which was searched later that evening. The chief suspect was arrested in the western city of Lviv. Recordings of phone calls published by Nabu suggested he was overseeing repairs at Kravchenko’s home while simultaneously collecting bribes from the fraudulent call centres. Nabu released images over the weekend of a safe filled with bundles of dollar bills. It said it had uncovered five officials behind the scheme but did not name them. The cash was spent on real estate, jewellery and other valuables, it said, laying out its evidence in a 30-minute video. Zelenskyy tried to strip Nabu and Sapo of their independence last year, a move he reversed after protests in Kyiv and other cities. There are further claims that the prosecutor’s office subsequently spied on Nabu staff and tried to obstruct their work. The revelations come at a time when Ukraine is under day-and-night attack from Russian drones and missiles. Three people were killed and 19 injured in overnight strikes on Kyiv that caused huge fires and left smoke hanging over the city. The onslaught marked the end of a three-day ceasefire in the capital after a visit on Sunday by Donald Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. They visited Moscow on Saturday and met Vladimir Putin. Zelenskyy said the pair had brought some “very good, worthwhile ideas” for ending the war but gave no further details. He said he hoped to meet Trump in the next two weeks. Few expect a breakthrough, with the Kremlin claiming on Tuesday that its forces were close to victory. While Russia escalated its bombing, Ukrainians were talking about corruption investigations, posting numerous comments on social media, the transparency advocate Olena Tregub said. “Society is shocked and appalled by government officials who are basically behaving as mafia,” she said. “It’s not even corruption. It’s organised crime, protecting illegal call centres that were scamming people, not only in Ukraine but in Europe.” She said anti-corruption investigations were different from previous ones because Nabu detectives were “very good technically”. “They are recording people in their homes, in their offices and over the phone,” she said. “They are outsmarting other law enforcement bodies fighting against them, and are able to tape people who think everything is discreet.” She said the high-profile raids were “changing the culture in Ukraine” and making society less tolerant of ill-gotten wealth. Zelenskyy’s former business partner fled the country last year after being implicated in a corruption case featuring the state nuclear energy company. Two ministers were fired. The president’s powerful chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, also later resigned after being questioned. Both deny wrongdoing. Kravchenko rejected the allegations against him on Sunday, calling them “completely unsubstantiated”. A day later he said he did not want his office “to be used as a tool in political confrontation”. The deputy chair of parliament’s law enforcement committee, Andriy Osadchuk, said the scandal underlined the need to ‌reform the prosecution service and called for key posts to be filled through open competition. Fighting corruption was also vital to Kyiv’s bid for EU membership, he said. “It will be very difficult for Ukraine to move forward if we do not change the approach to selecting and appointing the prosecutor general and prosecutors at lower levels,” Osadchuk said.

Remilitarisation and support for Ukraine must not slacken, US tells Europe

The US undersecretary of defence, Elbridge Colby, told European countries they “must not slacken” in their remilitarisation and their backing for Ukraine in a virtual meeting aimed at securing 300 Patriot interceptors for Kyiv. The influential Pentagon official praised Ukraine’s recent “stout defence”, which he said proved that Europe was capable of leading the defence of its own continent from Russian aggression rather than relying on the US. “Support for Ukraine contributes to Europe’s security,” Colby said at the start of a 50-country virtual meeting of the Ukraine contact group, reflecting what appears to be a warmer tone from the US on Ukraine. It helped, he continued, “to rebuild Europe’s military strength and industrial capacity. But words are not enough. Real money and industrial capacity must be put to work. Again, I underline that this is happening, but we must not slacken.” Led by its president, Donald Trump, the US has been pushing for Europe to dramatically increase defence spending and pay to supply American weapons, such as Patriot interceptors, to Kyiv, via a scheme set up by Nato. The UK announced it had committed £100m to boost Ukraine’s air defences over winter by buying a package of US military equipment that will include urgently needed Patriot missiles, before the meeting had started. Boris Pistorius, the German defence minister, pledged in his opening remarks that Berlin would donate a number of older Patriot Pac-2 interceptors from army stocks, and urged other allies of Ukraine to follow suit. Ukraine is currently unable to prevent Russian ballistic missile attacks because of a shortage of Patriot interceptors, leading to attacks that have killed civilians and destroyed food and logistics warehouses over the summer. Wes Streeting, the UK defence secretary, said that Ukraine had been “pretty clear” about what it needed: “Three hundred Patriot missiles from partner stocks, 500 air-to-air interceptors with counter-cruise missile capability, $2bn for drones,” and continued contributions to other schemes. The UK did not say how many Patriots it would be able to buy, but the number is likely to be only a fraction of the number sought, given the cost of each interceptor is estimated at about $3m. Yevhen Khmara, Ukraine’s newly appointed defence minister, acknowledged that Ukraine’s “situation with ballistics is much more difficult” and which was “precisely down to a lack of Patriot missiles”. It was a situation, he added, that the Kremlin was aware of, and trying to exploit. The Ukrainian minister also said that Ukraine faced a defence budget gap of €23bn this year, and he hoped that countries would bring forward more funding so that its drone investment programme could continue uninterrupted. Kyiv hopes that the EU will bring forward some of a €90bn two-year loan to help plug the shortfall. An escalation of the long-range war has meant that the harm to civilians is increasing as Ukraine targets Russian oil refineries and warehouses, while Russian bombing has meant that civilian casualties in Ukraine are at their highest level since May 2022 amid near constant attacks on the country’s cities. On Sunday, US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited Kyiv for the first time, to discuss peace proposals, though no breakthrough was made. A day earlier they had visited the Kremlin, which is still pressing for Ukraine to give up territory and make a string of concessions for ending the war. The prime minister, Andy Burnham, spoke to Trump about the war on Monday, with the two agreeing on the need to “continue working towards a ceasefire that prevented more loss of life”.

Israel to close British consulate in Jerusalem after sanctions announced

Israel has ordered the closure of the British consulate in occupied East Jerusalem in response to sweeping UK sanctions on goods from illegal settlements. Reacting to Ed Miliband’s description of violent Jewish settler activity on the occupied Palestinian West Bank as “ethnic cleansing” carried out with the tacit backing of the Netanyahu government, Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, announced retaliatory measures including the closure of the consulate and entry bans on several UK MPs. It is the latest stage in a furious and escalating row between the countries in which diplomatic relations have hit rock bottom. The consulate in the Sheikh Jarrah area of the city focuses on Palestinian issues in the occupied territories, including Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem. The British embassy in Tel Aviv is where the UK’s ambassador to Israel is based. While most countries regard East Jerusalem as illegally occupied by Israel since the Six Day War in 1967, Israel says Jerusalem is its undivided capital. “United Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and is under its full sovereignty,” Sa’ar said. “Any foreign activity in the area must be conducted through accepted and agreed channels and without violating Israel’s sovereignty.” Sa’ar also announced entry bans on a number of mostly leftwing MPs including the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, the Your Party MP Zarah Sultana, the Labour MPs Diane Abbott, Naz Shah, John McDonnell and Richard Burgon and the Green MPs Hannah Spencer, Carla Denyer, Siân Berry and Ellie Chowns. The Israeli government added that longstanding British involvement in the training of Palestinian security forces on the West Bank would be terminated. Britain will also be excluded from the US-led Gaza coordination mission, which is based in Israel. The British sanctions were coordinated with 11 other countries, including France and Canada. Sa’ar said: “The British move is morally distorted, and constitutes blatant interference in the affairs of a sovereign state and its electoral process.” He added: “Israel has nothing against the British people. We know that we have many friends in Britain. Unfortunately, a hostile Labour government is in office, systematically acting against the state of Israel, and it has left us with no choice but to finally respond to its hostile actions.” Sa’ar said that he had coordinated ‌Israel’s response with the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel will hold an election in late October. Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, called the ban “a grave miscalculation, a decision that will fall on the wrong side of history”. “In the current context, it would be a gross interference in the democratic elections of a sovereign nation,” he said. “Sanctions are not a solution – dialogue is. I say to all foreign governments: Stop. Step away from the dead-end of sanctions and boycotts, and turn toward constructive dialogue and toward cooperation.” Settlement building and settlement-related violence have increased under the auspices of far-right Israeli ministers in the Netanyahu government who have said publicly that they aim to “bury” a two state solution through their actions. Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s hardline public security minister and a settler leader, called on Netanyahu to recognise Argentina’s claim to the Falkland Islands, a British overseas territory in the South Atlantic known in Argentina as Islas Malvinas. The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, a longtime supporter of the settlements, said the British sanctions were “discrimination against the Jewish people”. He said the UK could face “repercussions or retaliations” from the US. However, in a markedly more muted response, US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said Washington would ‌not follow Britain, France and Canada in blocking ⁠imports from Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territory and did not want to see moves that would destabilise the West Bank. Israel has been under notice from successive British governments – both Conservative and Labour – for years over the risk of international isolation and potential sanctions related to continuing settlement activity in the occupied territories. These warnings have becomelouder in recent years as violent settler activity has escalated. The UK’s Labour government previously sanctioned some Israeli settlers and illegal outposts over violence against Palestinians and illegal development in the West Bank. In a change of Britain’s position, Miliband, the foreign secretary, said on Tuesday that the UK regards Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, and not just the settlements, as illegal. The tougher stance is likely to be welcomed by many Labour voters and lawmakers, who have urged the government to go further in sanctioning Israel and supporting Palestinians. Difficulties to establishing an EU-wide approach, coordinated with the UK, had led to countries making individual decisions on a widening sanctions regime that culminated in the joint statement by 12 countries that they were setting in train the process of far harder-hitting sanctions.

Police overlooked tip-off day before far-right agitators blocked Dover roads

Police were told the night before far-right agitators blocked roads into Dover that those involved had converged on a village 18 miles away and planned to use it as a launchpad, it has emerged. People in Preston-next-Wingham told of how hundreds of men had started to arrive in the village of just over 920 residents on Friday afternoon and in effect “took over” the village. At least one person is understood to have sought to pass on details to counter-terrorism police after people heard the far-right activists boasting in the local pub that they intended to go to Dover and “attack Muslims”. The information was passed on to police but little or no interest was shown in the tipoff, according to the anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate, who spoke to the person. Others reported careless and illegal parking to the police but no action was said to have been taken. The claims have raised fresh questions about Kent police’s handling of the protest, in which hundreds descended on Dover at 7am and which the force described as “spontaneous”. No arrests were made during the action, which involved hundreds of black-clad masked men standing in the middle of roads and led to access to the port of Dover being blocked for several hours. Kent police admitted on Tuesday that an initial review of its handling of the protests found that the force had received non-emergency information late on Friday evening that a protest could take place in the town the next day. “This information was not fully assessed. If it was, it may have allowed the force to consider its resourcing,” it said in a statement. “However, this information would not have prevented the lawful protest from taking place, nor the disruption experienced by the town, port and wider community.” Roger Gale, the MP for Herne Bay and Sandwich, who lives in Preston-next-Wingham, said the unrest in Dover on Saturday was clearly not “spontaneous”. He said that the village in Kent was unusually full of cars on Friday night and that a local car park and the recreation ground was still full of vehicles on Saturday morning, prompting him to call 999. Gale said: “A local councillor took photographs of the number plates and they should be able to work back from those to establish who owns the cars. I called 999 at around 9.30am on Saturday and two officers came over quite quickly. “I am going to write to the chief constable to ask what they are going to do with this information. There were roughly 50 cars in the car park and the recreation ground and more on the road. [What happened in Dover] was not spontaneous. It was carefully coordinated. Those participating were transported from the village to Dover, most likely in Luton vans.” Gale was not aware of calls being made to the police on Friday but he added that he knew that conversations among participants in Saturday’s unrest had been overheard in the village pub on Friday night. The action was organised by Daniel Thomas, a long-term associate of the far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson. Thomas, who has established an umbrella grouping called Patriot Platform, was also linked to a blockade in Portsmouth the following day. One person who lives in Preston-next-Wingham told Hope Not Hate: “There were hundreds of them. They took over the place. “They were literally parking everywhere. They parked in the recreational ground, in the butcher’s car park, in the primary school, on the roads and even on junctions.” A fleet of vehicles is understood to have arrived at about 5.30am on Saturday in the village. Video footage later showed men who took part in the protest disembarking from the back of the vehicles in Dover.

Russia says it will give a ‘harsh and painful’ response after Hungary expels 10 diplomats - Europe live

And, on that note, we will be closing the blog for today. Hungary told 10 Russian diplomats “engaged in activities … unacceptable for diplomats under the Vienna Convention” to leave the country, foreign minister Anita Orbán said (11:09), prompting a furious reaction from Moscow threatening Budapest with “harsh and painful” response (12:22). Hungary’s PM Péter Magyar said the decision was taken to “defend our country’s sovereignty” (16:32). The EU backed Hungary’s decision, saying it was “an expected reaction” in response to “Russia’s persistent campaign in using hybrid attacks against the EU” (12:51). Elsewhere, US president Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone, discussing the latest in US-led peace talks after peace envoys Witkoff and Kushner visited Moscow and Kyiv over the weekend (16:32). A Kremlin aide said the two leaders discussed the state of the Russian aggression on Ukraine, and discussed prospects for a potential broader restoration of US-Russia relations (16:45). These talks come as Ukraine’s allies met online and urged partners to help Kyiv boost its defences amid expectations of continued Russian attacks over the winter (14:28, 15:29, 15:47). Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested he hoped to meet Trump later this month to discuss missile defence, among other things (10:57). In other news, Several European countries condemned Serbia’s decision to hold a ceremonial funeral for Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladić, stressing the incompatibility of the move with the country’s aspirations to join the EU (13:16, 15:23, 15:35). The European Commission joined in condemnations today, after facing harsh criticism from Bosnia over its comments yesterday (12:48), but said it was “looking into” the issue without suggesting any immediate moves against Serbia (12:32). If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.