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British Prime Minister Andy Burnham will reveal the "robust" new sanctions on Israeli settlements in the West Bank that his government has been planning to introduce, going further than the previous Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, was willing to go.
The announcement from Burnham's office is set to be released within days as Israel publishes construction tenders for the E1 settlement, a project that would see the West Bank split in two. The move has been described by the Israeli government as unacceptable and prompted a joint statement from the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada and Norway, amongst others.
But a sanctions package on the economic infrastructure of the Israeli settlements, including financial institutions and construction companies, is in the making by the London government of Prime Minister Burnham. The measures are said to extend even to products from beyond the Green Line, and thus far beyond the individual perpetrators of violence of previous sanctions by the UK on Israeli settlers.
Critics within the Jewish community and of pro-Israel parties warn that the new sanctions could amount to collective punishment of the Israeli state. "When you sanction the settlement economy holistically, you are de facto sanctioning Israel," said a senior Conservative MP on background. "This government knows exactly what it is doing."
The Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, who took over from Keir Starmer after the party split over Gaza, has set out his own very clear stance on the matter of how to deal with the Israeli government. The statement he signed with the other European leaders on August 20th, strongly condemning the planned E1 settlement on the West Bank, has already been cited by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as further evidence of anti-Israeli bias around the world.
The announcement by Burnham will come at a sensitive time. Israel is going to the polls within months and Prime Minister Netanyahu is already trying to use the growing external pressure on Israel to paint his opponents as anti-Israel. Meanwhile, in the rest of the Middle East, Turkey has called for an Interpol arrest warrant to be issued for the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. As for the US, President Trump has made it clear that he views the European pressure on Israel with contempt. Yet, so far, there has been no comment from the White House on the announcement due to be made by Burnham within days.
The sanctions announcement is expected within days.
