By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has welcomed a coordinated decision by Britain, France and Canada to impose trade restrictions on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, as Israel responded to the move by ordering the closure of the UK’s consulate in Jerusalem and barring a dozen British parliamentarians from entering the country.
The Pakistani foreign office said on Wednesday that the expansion of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories amounted to a clear breach of international law and relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions, and that such activity was undermining the prospects of a two-state solution.
Britain unveiled the sanctions on Tuesday in a joint move with Canada and France. Announcing the measures, foreign secretary Ed Miliband accused the Israeli government of having “turned a blind eye” to an “ethnic cleansing” carried out by settlers in the West Bank, adding that members of the Israeli government had gone further still, making statements and taking actions that supported the displacement of Palestinian families. He framed the measures as a fundamental reset of Britain’s approach to Israel, telling parliament the government could no longer simply voice concern over the injustice without acting on it. Officials confirmed the trade ban would come into force within six to nine months and would cover imports of settlement-produced goods along with a range of related services, including financing, construction, real estate and advertising tied to the settlements.
The announcement was accompanied by a separate joint statement from the foreign ministers of twelve nations — Britain, France, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden — who signalled their intention to pursue comparable restrictions and reaffirmed their backing for a negotiated two-state settlement.
Reacting on its official X account, Pakistan’s foreign office said the continued growth of illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territory represented a flagrant violation of international law and relevant UN resolutions. It said the measures announced by the twelve countries were a welcome step, and that Pakistan hoped they would send an unambiguous message rejecting Israel’s conduct in the occupied territories. Islamabad, which does not recognise Israel, restated its longstanding position that it would continue to stand behind the Palestinian people in what it called their just struggle for self-determination, and would keep supporting efforts to establish a sovereign and contiguous Palestinian state along pre-1967 boundaries, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Pakistan’s response did not stand alone. In a separate joint statement issued the same day, the foreign ministries of Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Indonesia and Jordan also welcomed Britain’s decision, praising the wider group of Western governments moving to restrict trade with the settlements and urging further countries to follow suit. The eight nations echoed calls for Israel to reverse measures altering the demographic and geographic character of the occupied territory, and stressed that Gaza remained an integral part of Palestine, calling for full implementation of the US-brokered plan to end the conflict there. They reiterated that a two-state solution, built around an independent and viable Palestinian state on 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital, remained the only durable path to peace.
Within hours of the Britain announcement, Israeli authorities ordered the closure of Britain’s consulate in Jerusalem. Israel also said it would expel British officials from a monitoring centre established under the American-brokered Gaza ceasefire arrangement, end British-run training programmes for Palestinian Authority security forces, and impose entry bans on twelve British nationals, the majority of them members of parliament.
Miliband dismissed Israel’s retaliatory steps as regrettable and damaging. Speaking to BBC Radio, he rejected any suggestion that the sanctions would disrupt intelligence-sharing arrangements between the two countries, saying Britain’s security relationship with Israel remained an important one that he expected would endure, though he declined to elaborate further. He added that Britain continued to regard cooperation with Israeli partners as essential in confronting shared threats from Iran.
Washington has warned that Britain’s move could carry economic consequences, with the US ambassador to Israel cautioning that a response from American authorities was likely should London press ahead. British officials have so far shown no sign of retreating from the policy, which builds on earlier rounds of UK sanctions targeting individual settlers and outposts implicated in violence against Palestinian communities.
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