LONDON: A group of 96 British parliamentarians have demanded sanctions on Israel in a letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The letter calls for the imposition of targeted sanctions, a ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements, and a suspension of the trade agreement between the two countries.
“We write to express our grave concern over the relentless violence against Palestinians throughout the Occupied Palestinian territory and urge the United Kingdom to respond to Israel’s widespread and systematic violations of international law,” it says.
Citing escalating Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, the letter warns that recent British decisions to sanction settler organizations linked to human rights abuses “fall short of what is needed.”
The UK also risks complicity in Israeli violations of international law due to “continued diplomatic and economic transactions, and ties with Israeli institutions and settler organizations,” it adds.
The signatories called on the government to “move beyond sanctioning individual settlers but sanction state officials, including ministers, and introduce sanctions in respect of the State of Israel.”
The UK must also implement a total ban on trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the letter says, adding that such a move is mandatory based on decisions by the International Court of Justice and the UN, of which the UK is a member state, with both organizations clearly defining settlement-building in the occupied territories as illegal.
London should also suspend the UK-Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement, the signatories said, citing the deal’s highlighting of respect for human rights as an “essential element.”
Israel’s breaching of that term means the UK has the “legal right to suspend or terminate its provisions, in whole or in part,” the letter says.
The Council for Arab-British Understanding’s head of parliamentary affairs, Joseph Willits, said: “This letter shows that there is increasing parliamentary support for the UK to take tougher action against Israel.
“As Palestinians face violent erasure, including Israeli imposed genocide, starvation and ethnic cleansing, the UK government simply is not doing enough, and an increasing number of parliamentarians are also coming to this realization.
“What will it take for UK government action to match up with the horrifying situation and systemic violence on the ground, and to act on what parliamentarians, the British public, and most importantly, Palestinians have long been saying?”
