Full speech: Ed Miliband lays out UK’s ‘new approach’ to support two-state solution

Below is the full text of a speech delivered by British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband on September 8, 2026, announcing sweeping UK sanctions on Israeli settlements and the expansion of an arms embargo: Madame Deputy Speaker, with permission, I would like to make a statement on Israel and Palestine. I do so as a proud British Jew, someone with the deepest gratitude to the State of Israel for giving a home to my grandmother after she lost her husband, my grandfather, and 60 other family members at the hands of the Nazis. I remember visiting her in the 1970s in Tel Aviv and seeing the life and the sanctuary Israel had provided. Indeed, some of my most joyful childhood memories were picking oranges as a kid on the kibbutz where my cousins lived. Madame Deputy Speaker, my personal story and that of thousands of British Jews is one of the many reasons why I say to anyone here or around the world who questions Israel’s right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people: you are wrong and we will call you out whenever you engage in this attempt at the erasure of Israel. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Newsletter email address Get it By signing up, you agree to the terms Madame Deputy Speaker, I know what the trauma of Hamas’s terrorist atrocity of October 7 meant and still means to people across Israel and to Jews across the world. It was a murderous act by a murderous terrorist organization designed to massacre and instill fear across a whole population. October 7 makes plain the grave threats that Israel faces. And it has every right to defend itself. We should not only condemn those threats but act against those who carry them out. Iran continues to threaten Israel and Jews across the world. Advertisement We have already designated Iran’s IRGC and we will do more today on Iran’s proxy groups. So today I can also announce we are sanctioning Lebanese Hezbollah’s financing arm, Al-Qard Al-Hassan. Iran must never have a nuclear weapon. So we are also acting this week to report Iran to the UN Security Council for its nuclear violations, alongside our allies. And I can announce today that we are also reimposing major economic sanctions on Iran in line with the European Union and the United States. Madame Deputy Speaker, tackling these threats is just one of the important, shared national security interests we have with Israel, on which we will continue to co-operate. I know too that so many members of the Jewish community now live in fear in the face of rising antisemitism , including here in the UK. Last week we commemorated the anniversary of the Heaton Park attack — Jews murdered at their place of worship simply for their religion. An outrage that was followed by antisemitic attacks in Golders Green, including on the Hatzola ambulances. And the everyday life of Jews in Britain is deeply affected by the climate that such hate creates. Advertisement Armed police officers talk with members of the community near Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall, north Manchester, on October 2, 2025 (Paul Currie / AFP) When I went to school in the 1980s, I did so without fear. Today we need to face the truth: that is not the case for thousands of Jewish children across the UK, children who have to go to school with security guards outside their school. Mr Speaker, no child should have to go to school facing this. And no teacher should face antisemitism either. Whether it happens in our schools, universities or workplaces or online or on our streets, antisemitism is a scourge and an evil. We are rightly putting in place an additional investment of £250 million for community security. But we all have a responsibility to do more. As part of this, I will in October host representatives of the J7, the countries with the largest Jewish populations from across the world. We will meet in the UK to discuss the different ways we can work across borders to tackle antisemitism, including tackling online hate. Protesters gather near Downing Street during a “national emergency” rally organized by the Campaign Against Antisemitism following a knife attack in Golders Green, in London, April 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali) So Madame Deputy Speaker, I am proud of my Jewishness and unwavering in my support for the State of Israel. And there is absolutely no contradiction between this and my support for the State of Palestine. Indeed quite the opposite. The two-state solution is based on an explicit belief that the only route to security for both peoples is to live side by side in peaceful co-existence with freedom, security and self-determination. Advertisement Securing the two-state solution in its fullest form is the North Star of this government’s policy, and indeed of successive British governments over decades. And it is precisely this belief in the rights and freedoms of the Israeli and Palestinian people that leads many, including me, to a deep sense of shame about what has unfolded in Palestine under the eyes of the international community. In Gaza, the most unimaginable trauma and suffering in the last three years — death, destruction and dehumanization on an appalling scale. A stain on the conscience of the world and of this country too. And in the West Bank, the clear attempt to — in the words of Israeli Finance Minister [Bezalel] Smotrich – and I quote — “bury the idea of a Palestinian State.” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich attends a ceremony marking the establishment of the new Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Arugot in Gush Etzion, in the West Bank, September 2, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90) So Madame Deputy Speaker, there is a deeply painful contrast between our professed commitment to a two-state solution, and the reality on the ground in Gaza and the West Bank. I pay tribute to my predecessors, the current Health Secretary and the Right Honorable Member for Tottenham, for their tireless efforts on this issue as well as my Right Honorable Friend the Member for Lincoln. We should always be proud that it was a Labour government that took the historic step of recognizing the State of Palestine. But the prime minister is right to say that the Labour government has not done enough in the face of what is happening. Advertisement So today marks the beginning of a new approach. An approach that not only calls out injustice and suffering but acts. ‘Our argument is not with the people of Israel’ And in taking this stance, I make a very clear distinction — which is crucial for all of us in this debate: Our argument is not with the people of Israel, with whom the UK has unshakeable bonds. Our argument is with the conduct of its government. And I also want to say emphatically to people in Britain and across the world: Holding British Jews responsible for the actions of the Israeli government is antisemitism, plain and simple. What we seek today is to salvage the only course for peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians — the two state solution. Let me start with the situation in the West Bank. Madame Deputy Speaker, at the time of the Oslo peace accords in 1993, around 270,000 settlers lived in the occupied Palestinian territories. Today it is some 770,000. More settlements have been approved under the four years of this Israeli government than in the previous 20 years. An image taken from the West Bank village of Aqraba shows a new illegal Israeli outpost being built above the village, south of the West Bank city of Nablus on September 8, 2026. (JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP) Let us spell out what this has meant for Palestinian communities. Houses bulldozed. Roads and public infrastructure destroyed. Families displaced from their homes. Community by community. Family by family. Person by person. Madame Deputy Speaker, 65 Palestinian communities completely expelled since 2023 — a total of over 4,000 Palestinians evicted from their homes due to settler violence and state actions. And in August, the crossing of a long-standing red line: the issuing of E1 tenders for over 1,200 homes. I visited a community in the area covered by E1 in 2014. The Bedouin communities I met in Khan al-Ahmar had lived on that land for generations. E1 proposals would evict them and place settlements directly between East Jerusalem and the West Bank cutting through the heart of Palestine. Let’s be clear what this means: the creation of a set of facts on the ground to make the two state solution unviable. And on top of official state policy, settler terrorism is rampant. The UN reports an average of six violent settler attacks against Palestinians per day this year, the highest on record. This picture taken from the E1 area northeast of Jerusalem shows vehicles moving along a highway near the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim on February 4, 2026. (AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP) Take one example. In Al-Mughayyir, 20 miles north of Jerusalem, settlers have encircled the village and mounted a campaign of intimidation, largely under the protection of the Israeli military. Families in the village are increasingly cut off from accessing their land, squeezed into ever smaller areas and have olive trees uprooted and livestock stolen. In the same community, just last week, two teenagers were shot when settlers entered the village under police and military escort. Both died before reaching hospital. Madame Deputy Speaker five teenagers have now been killed from their school this year. ‘Ethnic cleansing…perpetrated by settler terrorists’ Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister, has described what is happening as — I quote — “a violent and criminal effort to ethnically cleanse territories in the West Bank.” The former minister of health and retired brigadier general from the IDF, Ephraim Sneh has said – and I quote again — “this is ethnic cleansing, to put it simply.” Ethnic cleansing is defined by the UN as “a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.” The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank — perpetrated by settler terrorists. And all too often the Israeli government has turned a blind eye to this and worse, members of it have made statements and taken actions to support the forced displacement of Palestinians. People inspect damaged cars after an attack allegedly by settler extremists in the village of Jalud, near the West Bank city of Nablus, August 4, 2026. (FLASH90) Now Madame Deputy Speaker, I recognize the gravity of saying this but the truth is, it is the least the people who face such suffering deserve. And it should be the prelude to justice. Now for a long time, the British government has rightly said settlements are illegal. But we have remained silent on the question of the legality of the occupation as a whole, which in 2024 the International Court of Justice concluded was unlawful. Official UK position: ‘The occupation is unlawful’ Today I announce that the official view of the British Government is that the occupation is unlawful. Because of Israel’s entrenchment of its control, its intention to extend permanent sovereignty, and its expansionist agenda via illegal settlements. Madame Deputy Speaker, our position is not just an overdue statement of reality. The government believes the unlawfulness of the occupation should be reflected in the economic relationships we choose to have with the occupied territories. I do not believe that the British people want us supporting the occupation by accepting products from settlements in our shops and supermarkets. So I can announce today that we will introduce an import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories. People attend cornerstone-laying ceremony for a new settlement named Doran in the Mount Hebron