On September 8, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband stood in Parliament and said what Washington won’t: Israel is committing ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, and the occupation itself, a finding the International Court of Justice reached in 2024, is unlawful. The United Kingdom is leading a coalition of twelve countries banning trade with Israeli settlements. Britain alone has gone further, refusing arms export licenses for anything that materially supports the occupation.
Palestinians in the West Bank have lived under Israeli military rule since 1967, when Israel captured the territory in the Six-Day War. A 1993 agreement was meant to be a five-year bridge to a lasting settlement. It never came. Since then, the International Court has viewed the occupation, and the settlements built on it, as illegal. Palestinians there live under checkpoints that control basic movement, permits required for ordinary life, searches without warrants, and imprisonment without formal charges.
Things worsened in December 2022, when Prime Minister Netanyahu formed the most right-wing government in Israel’s history. Settler violence has reached an all-time high, with an average of six attacks a day in the first half of 2026. More than 1,200 Palestinians have been killed in the last three years. More than 11,000 are currently in Israeli prisons. Since the current government took power, police cases against settlers accused of these attacks have fallen 70 percent. Only one Israeli has been charged with killing a Palestinian in the West Bank since 2019.
In February 2023, settlers rampaged through the Palestinian town of Huwara while Israeli soldiers stood by. Israel’s own military commander for the West Bank called it a pogrom. My grandmother left Russia to escape pogroms. I did not expect to see the Israeli army and Israeli citizens engage in pogroms.
This escalation of violence is now official Israeli policy. To hold his governing coalition together, Netanyahu gave the radical-right minister Bezalel Smotrich sweeping control over the West Bank. Smotrich has said the goal is “maximum territory with minimum Arabs.”
Britain’s ban on settlement goods, joined by eleven other countries, has little economic impact. Less than five percent of Israeli exports come from settlements. The real leverage sits in a separate, untested set of sanctions targeting companies and banks that finance settlement construction and mortgages. This announcement comes six weeks before the Israeli election, and how far Britian will go in implementation depends on the next government’s policy on the West Bank. There is one candidate, Gadi Eisenkot, who has campaigned against Netanyahu’s West Bank policy.
Until now, the Trump Administration’s policy has been to allow Israel to conduct its policy in the West Bank and Gaza without comment or criticism. Trump was briefed in advance on the UK’s sanctions plan by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and did not object. When Ambassador Huckabee criticized Britain’s move, the White House distanced itself from his comments rather than defending them. Privately, Trump pressured Netanyahu into removing a small number of unauthorized outposts built inside Palestinian-administered land. The government’s official settlement program, the far larger effort actually driving land seizure across most of the West Bank, continued without interruption.
On his first day in office, Trump revoked the one sanctions tool that had existed for violent settlers. In April, the Republican-controlled Senate declined to block a $295 million sale of bulldozers, the same equipment Israel uses to demolish Palestinian homes in the West Bank. It has also declined to hold Israel accountable for the deaths of American citizens: at least nine Americans have been killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers in the West Bank since 2022, none of which resulted in a single criminal charge.
This is the first sign of any international pressure on Israel. These actions alone will not be enough. It remains to be seen if countries are willing to put enough pressure to change Israel’s behavior. I hope so.
Endnotes
Ed Miliband’s full September 8 speech to Parliament, declaring the occupation unlawful and describing “ethnic cleansing perpetrated by settler terrorists”: The Times of Israel, Full speech: Ed Miliband says entire occupation unlawful
Smotrich’s “maximum territory with minimum Arabs” quote, the coalition mechanism that gave him control of the West Bank, and settler violence as deliberate annexation strategy: J Street, Maximum Territory with Minimum Arabs
The Huwara attack and Israel’s own military commander calling it a pogrom: CNN, Huwara: The settler attack on this West Bank town was called a ‘pogrom’ by Israel’s military
More Palestinians killed in the West Bank in the past three years than the previous seventeen combined: Oxfam International, More Palestinians killed by Israeli military and settlers in the West Bank in last 3 years than previous 17 combined
More than 11,000 Palestinians currently held in Israeli custody: UN OCHA, Humanitarian Situation Update #330 | West Bank
The 70 percent drop in police cases against settlers, and only one Israeli charged with killing a Palestinian since 2019: Human Rights Watch, West Bank: Israel-Backed Settler Violence Drives Displacement
The coalition’s economic impact, the sanctions targeting companies and banks, and the link to Israel’s October 27 election: J Street, The UK, France, and Canada’s West Bank Sanctions, Explained
Trump’s revocation of Executive Order 14115 on his first day in office: NBC News, As Trump lifts sanctions on West Bank settlers, anti-Palestinian violence flares
The Senate’s failed vote to block the $295 million bulldozer sale: The Times of Israel, US Senate foils effort to nix Israel arms sale, but record 85% of Democrats support the move
Nine American citizens killed in the West Bank since 2022, with no accountability: Senator Chris Van Hollen, Van Hollen, 30 Colleagues Press Administration for Accountability