The UK is actively working on a comprehensive plan to ban all import and export transactions of goods and services with “illegal” Israeli settlements, Minister for Trade Chris Bryant announced on Wednesday.Bryant made the comments during the Business and Trade Sub-Committee on Economic Security, Arms and Export Controls.When asked about the status of sanctions on imports and exports with settlements, Bryant said, “It is time to move from simply labeling goods from illegal settlements to banning goods from illegal settlements.”Advertisement“Obviously, these are illegal settlements, and they are expanding,” he told the subcommittee, adding, “No British business in any form should be involved in the sustenance or expansion of these settlements.”Bryant said that he was as concerned with service exports and imports as he is with goods, calling service exports “just as problematic, if not more problematic.”<figure><img alt="An Israeli settler rides a donkey near an Israeli vehicle, during olive harvesting in Silwad, near Ramallah, in the West Bank, October 29, 2025." src="https://images.jpost.com/image/upload/f_auto,fl_lossy/c_fill,g_faces:center,h_537,w_822/689899"></figure><h3>UK, EU move to ban trade with settlements&nbsp;</h3>He explained that some companies in the UK may be providing mortgages or financial support to people building in illegal settlements, or providing accountancy or legal services.“We must address all four issues: import and export of goods and services,” he said.However, Bryant acknowledged the challenges of enforcing many of these sanctions, especially as tariffs on settlement goods can be circumnavigated if Israel labels them as Israeli.He noted that his counterparts in Spain and Ireland told him they “worry about the actual effectiveness of the measures” they are taking, and said the UK wants to ensure it imposes them effectively.He told the committee that the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and the Foreign Office (FCDO) have been working together for months “to try to get a serious plan of action in place” regarding the ban.“There is a very strong moral argument for all this, and a very strong legal argument for all this, but actually making it effective is not simple.”Regarding timelines, he told the subcommittee that it would be ideal to use the sanctions frameworks that already exist (either from the FCDO or DBT), rather than rely on primary legislation which is lengthy.“We’ve been doing the work on precisely how this would work,” he concluded.The EU has been working hard to impose a similar ban, but failed to reach a qualified majority on Monday during a session of the EU Foreign Affairs Council.Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar condemned High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas for her “obsessive campaign against Israel.”“Israel’s relations with Europe should be based on dialogue and fairness,” he said. “Tricks like this do nothing to advance our shared interests.”

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UK working on plan to ban all trade with Israeli settlements, minister says

British lawmakers from across the political spectrum are pressing the government to ban imports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, saying that explanations for why such a ban has not yet been imposed were inadequate.During a three-hour House of Commons debate on Thursday, lawmakers argued that Britain’s long-standing position that the settlements are illegal under international law means it should fall in line behind other countries advancing bans, particularly at a time of rising settler violence and efforts to expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank.The debate - the latest in a number of formal discussions about a potential ban in Parliament - was led by Abtisam Mohamed, a politician from the governing Labour Party who is the first Arab woman and first Yemeni member of Parliament. She was denied entry into Israel in 2025, a year after being elected.“I want to pose a simple question to the government today, a question that sits at the heart of this debate,” Mohamed said in opening the session. “If settlements are illegal, why have we not made an outright ban on trade? What exactly is it that we’re waiting for?”Lawmakers from other parties piled on.<figure><img alt="Sian Berry, Carla Denyer, co-leader of Green Party, Adrian Ramsey, co-leader of Green Party and Ellie Chowns pose for a photo in London, Britain, July 8, 2024." src="https://images.jpost.com/image/upload/f_auto,fl_lossy/c_fill,g_faces:center,h_537,w_822/729915"></figure><h3>'No excuse to wait for other countries'</h3>“There is no excuse that we have to wait for other countries to move because they’ve moved ahead of us,” said Ellie Chowns from the left-wing Green Party, which has made opposition to Israel part of its platform. “There is no excuse that this is too technically difficult because the legal framework already exists.”And a member of the Conservative Party, which has traditionally favored strong ties with Israel, said he was unconvinced by the argument, made recently by a government official, that other measures that are potentially less complicated to administer could achieve the same pressure on Israel.“We’ve done everything except the obvious, which is just the ban,” said the lawmaker, Kit Malthouse. “The question I’m left asking is, why? Why the reluctance? Why the hesitation? Nobody’s buying the complexity argument.”On Monday, EU foreign ministers met to discuss a ban on products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, in order to gauge if there is enough support for the move. The EU’s foreign minister said a ban on imports was the most popular option under discussion and said she expected that the conversation would soon advance.The discussion in the House of Commons comes as the British Labour government is in flux, with a new prime minister set to take over from Keir Starmer next week. It also comes as the government is taking steps to reassure a Jewish community that has been rattled by a number of violent incidents. This week, the government both allocated more than $300 million in security funding for Jewish institutions while also formally declaring Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, seen as tied to many of the attacks, to be a terrorist group, in a move that enables more intense prosecution.In an appearance before the Foreign Affairs Committee earlier in July, the government’s top Middle East minister fended off allegations that the Labour government was slow-walking pressure on Israel. Hamish Falconer also noted that British Jewish leaders are urging against an import ban.<h3>British Jewish community under 'considerable pressure'</h3>“There are legitimate and reasonable concerns from the British Jewish community that if we were to take steps which were crude, which were untargeted, could have unintended consequences on the lives of the community who are already under considerable pressure,” he said. “I do take that seriously for obvious reasons.”The Board of Jewish Deputies, an umbrella organization for almost 200 Jewish groups in Britain, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that it was reluctant to comment on a potential ban on West Bank imports before a new prime minister is installed. But the group has previously weighed in strongly against efforts to boycott Israel, arguing in a 2017 report that “to hasten a solution to the settlements would be to assist the chances of negotiations through promoting peace, rather than the problematic boycott campaign.”Falconer also signaled that all bets could be off if the Israeli government moves forward with a settlement project known as E1, telling the Foreign Affairs Committee, “I have said repeatedly that no one should benefit from a profit made on land that has been unlawfully procured.”The E1 initiative would expand Jewish settlements on a stretch of land east of Jerusalem, bisecting the West Bank, and is seen by both its proponents and critics as a bid to undercut a potential future Palestinian state. The current right-wing Israeli government has moved the E1 project significantly toward actualization, approving it formally.&nbsp;If the project proceeds further, Falconer told lawmakers, “then we and our friends and allies would take tangible action in response.”

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British lawmakers press government for immediate ban on Israeli West Bank settlement imports