UK vows settler measures; Israel warns retaliation

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said on Tuesday that the UK would set out measures over Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank, while Israel warned it would retaliate if London imposed sanctions.

Speaking in parliament, Miliband condemned what he called “appalling settler terrorism” and said Palestinians had been driven from their homes. He promised a “comprehensive reset” of UK policy and said the government would announce measures in the coming weeks.

“This government will not acquiesce in the destruction of the two-state solution,” Miliband said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar later told a podcast: “If Britain acts against the State of Israel, the State of Israel will act against Britain.” He did not say what Israel would do, but Israel has reportedly looked at expelling diplomats.

Miliband said Britain was looking at its wider economic relationship with the occupied territories. “We do not want British companies financing, constructing or advertising new settlements,” he said.

He also criticised the E1 development plan, under which more than 1,200 settler homes were greenlit by Israel last year. Miliband called the plan “the crossing of a red line”, saying it cut through the West Bank and risked making a Palestinian state unviable.

More than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, alongside about three million Palestinians. Settlements are considered illegal under international law.

The Palestinian ministry of religious affairs said settlers tried to set fire to a mosque in the northern West Bank on Tuesday, describing it as the 13th such desecration of a mosque this year. AFP pictures showed graffiti in Hebrew with threatening messages and criticism of US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.

Huckabee, who has long supported settlements, recently described a group of settlers as “terrorists” after they tried to cut off Palestinian homes in Qusra, including one belonging to a US citizen.

Israel recently expelled two Dutch diplomats from a US-led centre coordinating a Gaza ceasefire after the Netherlands banned trade from settlements. The British embassy in Israel said it was participating in the centre at the request of the United States and to support the Gaza peace plan.