UK to 'reset' relations with Israel, impose ban on trade with West Bank settlements

The UK government has announced its decision to "reset" its relations with Israel over Tel Aviv's continued illegal expansion of settlements on the occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank. Media reports said UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband is scheduled to outline the new foreign policy measures in regard to Israel in Parliament on Tuesday. The Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, and recent months have seen a rise in violence towards Palestinians in the West Bank by settlers. UK to adopt 'comprehensive' measures against Israel over West Bank settlement expansion Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband says Britain will unveil a “comprehensive" package of measures on illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank in the coming weeks. Miliband last week likened the new measures to a "reset" of the British government's policy on Israel. The UK's new anti-Israeli measures are expected to include a ban on trade with the Israeli West Bank settlements. The Israeli regime has previously warned it would retaliate if any new measures were introduced against Tel Aviv by the UK government. In a related development, far-right Israeli regime officials called for retaliatory measures against the UK government over what they described as the illegal "occupation" of the Argentine Malvinas Island, also know as the Falkland Islands, by the UK. Israel threatens economic, political response to London as UK mulls sanctions Far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich says Israel will take both political and economic measures in response to potential UK sanctions. "We will not be a trampled doormat of an antisemitic government ... trying to save itself from economic and social decline by attacking" the Tel Aviv regime, Israeli minister of finance, Bezalel Smotrich, said, in reference to the UK. He added that the "British Mandate" is over, referring to the League of Nations mandate for British administration of the territories of Palestine between 1920 and 1948. The so-called Israeli minister of security Itamar Ben Gvir called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to sanction Britain for its "occupation" of the Islas Las Malvina, a.k.a., Falkland Islands. "It's time for ... Israel to publicly recognize that the Malvinas Islands [the Argentine name for the Falkland Islands] are Argentine territory under occupation, which the British violently steal from the Argentine people,” Ben Gvir wrote in a post on X in Spanish. "The British are not content with merely occupying the territory; they also carry out oil drilling there and steal the money from the Argentine people." Both ministers demanded the expulsion of the British envoy from Tel Aviv. The decision marks a significant development in relations between Israel and one of its top Western allies amid mounting international criticism over Israel’s policies in the West Bank as settler violence against Palestinians has surged in the area. The international community views the West Bank as part of a future Palestinian state.