UK sanctions on Israeli settlements to cover Syria's Golan Heights
The sanctions will target companies and individuals providing services that facilitate settlement expansion, including construction, infrastructure financing and real estate
Britain will ban imports of goods produced in Israeli settlements in occupied territories and impose sanctions on companies and individuals that help expand them, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said, with the measures covering the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the occupied Golan Heights.
"I do not believe the British people want us supporting the occupation by accepting products from settlements in our shops and supermarkets, so I can announce today that we will introduce an import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories."
According to the Middle East Eye, the British government will also introduce "...a new comprehensive sanctions regime… with appropriate religious exemptions", Miliband said.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
The sanctions will target companies and individuals providing services that facilitate settlement expansion, including construction, infrastructure financing and real estate.
"We will take action against specific companies and individuals who provide services such as construction, infrastructure financing or real estate for settlement expansion," Miliband said.
"So to those who finance or facilitate illegal settlements, let me say this: you will face the full force of UK sanctions. Settlements are illegal. They should not be promoted in our country."
The measures apply to the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. The British government has declared the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory illegal.
The Golan Heights, a strategic plateau occupied by Israel from Syria in 1967 and subsequently annexed by Israel without international recognition, is home to about 20,000 Israeli settlers and 26,000 native Druze residents who identify as Syrian.
Under UN Resolution 242, Israel is called upon to withdraw from territories occupied in the 1967 war, including the Golan Heights, Gaza Strip and West Bank.
Britain's measures come alongside a joint declaration signed by Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
The countries said they "...confirm their intention to introduce national and/or support European restrictions on trade in goods with settlements which are illegal under international law, or that they are actively considering these and other measures, in accordance with their national procedures".
Israel responded with retaliatory measures.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar announced that Israel would close the British consulate in East Jerusalem and ban 11 British MPs in response to the British measures.
The sanctions mark an expansion of Britain's measures against Israeli settlement activity, extending the import restrictions and sanctions framework beyond the West Bank to East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
