UK suspends free trade agreement negotiations with Israel, sanctions settlers

The UK Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, has announced that the United Kingdom is to suspend negotiations for a free trade agreement with Israel on account of the commencement of a new military operation in Gaza, termed Operation Gideon’s Chariot. Lammy also said that the UK will be imposing sanctions on settlers.

In a speech before the UK Parliament, Lammy said, ‘Prime Minister Netanyahu says that they are going to take control of the Strip letting only minimal amounts of food reach Gazans… just enough to prevent hunger.’

‘Fewer than ten trucks entered Gaza yesterday… Civilians in Gaza facing starvation, homelessness, trauma, desperate for this war to end, now confront renewed bombardment, new displacement and new suffering. And the remaining hostages kept apart from their loved ones by Hamas for almost six hundred days are now at heightened risk from the war around them.’

Lammy cited recent statements by Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, ‘in which he spoke of Israeli forces “cleansing” Gaza, “destroying what’s left”, [and] of resident Palestinians “being relocated to third countries”‘.

‘We must call this what it is. It is extremism. It is dangerous. It is repellent. It is monstrous. And I condemn it in the strongest possible terms,’ he said, describing the planned displacement of large numbers of Gazans as ‘morally unjustifiable, wholly disproportionate and utterly counterproductive’.

The Foreign Secretary said that the United Kingdom would ‘not give up’ on the idea of a two-state solution that saw Israelis living in secure borders [and] Palestinians living in their own state, ‘in dignity and security, free of occupation,’ but that the ‘viability’ of that framework was threatened, not only by the continuing war in Gaza but by ‘the spread of Israeli settlements and outposts across the Occupied West Bank.’ He said that ‘settler approval has accelerated while settler violence has soared.’

For that reason, he said, the UK would be imposing sanctions on three individuals, and ‘four entities involved in settler violence’. 

‘Britain’s prerogative to harm its own economy’

In response to Lammy’s statement, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on X, ‘Even prior to today’s announcement, the free trade agreement negotiations were not being advanced at all by the current UK government. More than that, the agreement would serve the mutual benefit of both countries. If, due to anti-Israel obsession and domestic political considerations, the British government is willing to harm the British economy — that is its own prerogative. The sanctions against residents of Judea and Samaria are unjustified, and regrettable.’

Referring to the period between 1920 and 1948 during which Britain administered what was then the territory of Palestine, the Ministry said, ‘The British Mandate ended exactly 77 years ago. External pressure will not divert Israel from its path in defending its existence and security against enemies who seek its destruction.’