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British Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Wednesday defended his government’s ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank after Israel announced retaliatory measures against the U.K. over Western sanctions targeting settler violence.
Britain was among 12 countries, including Canada and France, that announced restrictions on trade with Israeli settlements following a rise in settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
“Where people are being bullied out of their homes, intimidated, we will always stand with the underdog and take what action we can to support them,” Burnham told Parliament.
“In this difficult and dangerous world, Britain has to stand for something,” he added, saying the U.K. was standing for “fairness against injustice.”
Israel responded by ordering the closure of Britain’s consulate in Jerusalem.
It also said it would expel British representatives from a center monitoring the U.S.-brokered ceasefire plan in Gaza, bar British training for Palestinian Authority forces and prohibit 12 Britons, mostly members of Parliament, from entering the country.
Burnham also defended the timing of the sanctions after critics argued they could strengthen Israel’s far right ahead of elections next month.
He said action was necessary because the tender for 1,200 homes planned as part of Israel’s new E1 settlement would conclude before the Oct. 27 election.
British Foreign Minister Ed Miliband on Wednesday condemned Israel’s decision to close the consulate as “regrettable and damaging.”
“We anticipated this might happen because we saw other countries, the Dutch, for example, who had announced sanctions, who had seen these reprisals from Israel,” Miliband told BBC Radio.
Miliband rejected suggestions that the sanctions would affect intelligence cooperation with Israel.
“I was very clear yesterday that we do believe in working with our Israeli partners when it comes to the threats they face from Iran,” he said.
He also dismissed criticism from Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, who described the measures Tuesday as “little more than political flag-bearing.”
Mirvis called it “truly a dark day for British Jews” and said the measures would “succeed only in bolstering the very extremism they seek to target.”
Several antisemitic attacks in London this year have targeted synagogues and other Jewish sites.
The measures reflect a tougher British approach toward Israel under Burnham, who succeeded Keir Starmer as prime minister in July.
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