U.K. Defends West Bank Settlement Import Ban Amid Israeli Diplomatic Backlash

The U.K. has defended its decision to impose new sanctions on certain Israeli goods, following backlash that saw London told to close its consulate in Jerusalem within a month.

Britain's foreign secretary Ed Miliband announced on Tuesday that Britain would ban imports from Israeli settlements built on the West Bank, adding that the U.K. government's official view is that the "occupation [of the West Bank] is unlawful."

The move prompted an accusation from Israel that the British government was "systematically working against" the country, and a ban on 12 U.K. lawmakers entering Israel. Britain has also been told to close its consulate in east Jerusalem within 30 days, according to reports.

A spokesperson for the Israeli government was not immediately available for comment, but Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar labeled Miliband's allegations of "ethnic cleansing" in the West Bank "outrageous lies."

"The message to every government that harms us is clear: you will lose your influence and relevance in the region," he said in a statement.

On Wednesday morning, Miliband told the BBC that the U.K. government felt it had to "call out" what was happening in the West Bank, with sanctions being imposed from a place of "deep concern" that waiting any longer would mean it was "too late" for a so-called two-state solution to be upheld.

"We and our allies did not feel we could stand by and be passive and powerless in the face of this destruction of the two-state solution," he said, adding that the U.K. "could not simply stand by because we feared Israeli reaction."

Palestinian people are being "intimidated, harassed, bullied out of their homes by these settler terrorists," he added, and Britain could not be "silent or passive."

The U.K.'s announcements were met with warnings from some U.S. officials and lawmakers that British companies could face business restrictions in response to sanctions on Israel.

However, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Tuesday that the Trump administration did not have any comment on an American response to the U.K.'s decision.

"We don't want to see anything destabilizing going on right now in the West Bank with so much going on in the region," he said. "We think it has implications as well on our ability to make progress with regards to Gaza and the 20-point plan and Board of Peace that we're very committed to. Obviously, we're not going to do what the U.K. did."

He also said that the White House had been "made aware" of the U.K.'s decision in advance.

"We share the goal of stability. We don't want to see some uptick in violence or an uptick in conflict or tensions in the West Bank at a very tenuous time in the region," he said.