West Bank violence strains Israel-West ties before vote

West Bank settler violence and settlement expansion are straining Israel's relations with Western allies before Israel's October elections, with Britain and France signalling possible moves against settlement activity.

Britain's foreign secretary on Tuesday promised a major policy reset toward Israeli construction in the occupied West Bank and said a comprehensive set of measures would come within weeks. France's foreign minister urged the European Union to ban trade with settlements and called rising West Bank violence an unacceptable affront to Palestinians' dignity.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government is continuing settlement expansion, which is considered illegal under international law. The issue has drawn international outrage over attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.

A European diplomat in Tel Aviv told AFP there appeared to be an unprecedented level of settler violence and said Israeli authorities did not seem to be responding as seriously as Western governments wanted. Another European diplomat in Jerusalem said Israel was crossing red lines that risked making a Palestinian state unviable.

Analysts cited by AFP said Britain is likely to target individuals and organisations involved in settlement expansion rather than impose broad sanctions. Andreas Krieg of King's College London said a British settlement trade ban would be limited economically on its own but more consequential if other European economies adopted the same approach.

Several EU countries, including Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain, have imposed their own settlement trade restrictions, but bloc-wide measures require agreement across EU member states. Julie Norman of Chatham House said Western governments may be cautious before Israel's elections because pressure could feed what she described as Netanyahu's siege mentality argument.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has promised retaliation against Britain's planned anti-settlement measures without elaborating.