UK accuses Israel of backing ethnic cleansing by “terrorist” settlers in West Bank | BBC News

The UK government has launched a scathing attack on Israel’s actions in the West Bank and Gaza. The Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said ‘terrorists’ were carrying out ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, which is illegally occupied by Israel, and said they were doing so with the backing of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Mr Miliband announced sanctions on trade with settlements and declared that UK policy was now officially that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank was unlawful. The UK announcements are the most direct condemnation of Israeli policy since it was founded as a state, and follows a summer of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities in the occupied territories.

The UK joins 12 other countries that have announced sanctions against goods from the settlements, including France and Canada. It comes as Israel is implementing another major expansion of settlements, with the construction of E1, a new development of 1,200 homes that will cut off Palestinians in the West Bank from East Jerusalem, which they claim as the future capital of a Palestinian state.

The Israeli government reacted furiously to the British announcement, condemning the new Labour administration of Andy Burnham, and announcing the closure of the UK consulate in Jerusalem. The Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar said the UK government was “systematically working against the state of Israel” and accused Mr Miliband of telling “outrageous lies”.

Reeta Chakrabarti presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Chris Mason, Lucy Williamson and Jeremy Bowen.

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