President Donald Trump did not object to the UK imposing sanctions targeting Israeli settlements in the West Bank during a call with British Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
On Tuesday, the UK, France, and Canada imposed the measures in response to Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank. “So I can announce today that we will introduce an import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories,” UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said on Tuesday. “So to those who finance or facilitate illegal settlements, let me say this, you will face the full force of UK sanctions. Settlements are illegal. They should not be promoted in our country.”
President Trump was informed by UK Prime Minister Burnham that London would be placing the export restrictions on Israeli settlements during a phone call ahead of the announcement. According to two sources speaking with Axios, Trump did not object or push back on the planned sanctions.
Additionally, sources told the outlet that US officials agreed with their British counterpart’s assessment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, even if they disagree with imposing sanctions on Israel.
Israel responded to the sanctions by giving the UK 30 days to close its consulate in East Jerusalem. “The British move is morally distorted, and constitutes blatant interference in the affairs of a sovereign state and its electoral process,” Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said.
The UK, France, and Canada elected to put the sanctions on Israel in response to Tel Aviv’s plan for settlement expansion in the E1 area of the West Bank. The planned settlement will effectively split the West Bank and prevent a continuous Palestinian state in the future.
When he announced the new settlements in E1 last year, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said it would bury the idea of an independent Palestinian state. “Approval of construction plans in E1 buries the idea of a Palestinian state and continues the many steps we are taking on the ground as part of the de facto sovereignty plan that we began implementing with the establishment of the government,” he explained.
Netanyahu’s government also facilitated the transfer of Qatari money to Hamas-run Gaza, a policy that critics and former Israeli officials have described as part of a strategy to keep Hamas and the Palestinian Authority divided and undermine the prospects for a Palestinian state.
Smotrich, who is a settler and is the leader of the Religious Zionist Party, says he has the prime minister’s support. “He backs me up in everything concerning Judea and Samaria, and is letting me create the revolution,” he said Thursday.
Since the current Israeli government took power in December 2022, it has approved tens of thousands of new Israeli homes in the West Bank. Smotrich has bragged that settlement expansion is occurring at a historic pace.
The White House’s refusal to condemn London over the sanctions breaks with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who criticized the export ban as “discrimination against the Jewish people.”
The administration is attempting to distance itself from the diplomat, saying Huckabee’s statement was “not coordinated with the White House.”
