Ban will take six to nine months to come into force, Miliband says
Miliband said the legislation he was announcing today would take six to nine months to come into effect.
Key events
Here is Miliband’s peroration.
My parents came here as Jewish refugees and found sanctuary and a country that stood up for the rule of law, freedom and self-determination.
Those are the values this government is standing up for today.
And I truly believe that the vast majority of the British people, including in our communities with ties to the region, are united in their desire to see humanitarian suffering end, and all sides commit to a durable peace process.
And just as we want Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side, so we have to live out those values in Britain.
Jews in Britain, Muslims in Britain, people of all faiths and none, have a right to live without prejudice or fear.
A Britain that upholds its values at home and around the world. A Britain that fights against oppression and suffering wherever it occurs. A Britain that stands up for what is right.
Miliband says France and Canada also announcing bans on trade with illegal settlements today
Miliband said France and Canada were also banning trade with the illegal settlements today
We act in concert with others in a broad international coalition.
I can tell the house that today France and Canada are announcing alongside Britain that they will also ban the import of goods from illegal settlements, joining the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain and Norway.
Other countries were also planning further action, he said.
This is what Britain can achieve, leading with others and this is in our fundamental national interest.
Miliband said the government would do all it could to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza.
I pledge we will continue to do everything we can to provide all the humanitarian support possible to help the people of Gaza.
UK-supported hospitals in Gaza will enable around 800,000 medical consultations this year, and essential health service health services for patients.
UK expertise will deliver care to over 1,000 child amputees, and we recently welcomed another wave of students from Gaza coming to study in Britain. And we will welcome more.
But in truth, unless Israel changes course, the situation will remain dire.
So we are taking further steps both ourselves and with others, our extension of the global human rights sanctions regime will enable us to target those responsible for violations of international humanitarian law, whether in Gaza or anywhere else in the world. And we will let the UN general assembly in New York later this month shine the clearest and harshest spotlight on what is happening and what must change.
Miliband turned to claims of genocide.
On the question of genocide, the UK has always supported full, robust and fair judicial processes to consider allegations, with final determinations made by competent courts before the British government reaches a conclusion.
This has been the case for all of the genocides since the 1948 Genocide Convention – Rwanda, Srebrenica, Cambodia and acts against the Uyghur people. That will remain our policy.
It is right this issue has been brought before the ICJ, and I want to I want to make it clear that we support the court in coming to its determination.
Miliband says there’s ‘increasing evidence’ war crimes have been committed in Gaza
Turning to Gaza, Miliband said the 7 October attack could not justify what had happened since.
Over 70,000 people have been killed, at least 20,000 of them children.
The vast majority of the population is now displaced. Nearly 2 million people, who are now penned into just one third of the territory. Life-saving humanitarian aid and access has been routinely blocked. Hospitals and clinics have been destroyed. Over 60% of homes are in ruins …
International humanitarian law imposes clear rules for states fighting wars, including to ensure access to food and medical supplies to avoid mass displacement of civilians, and to avoid the targeting of civilians.
Serious and international violations of this law, if proven, amount to war crimes.
What has occurred, including the actions of the IDF, have been examined in depth by a number of organisations, including the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry.
The conclusions of these reports represent increasing evidence that war crimes appear to have been committed, and we support legal processes to determine this.
Miliband says UK arms exports to Israel that contribute to occupation will be banned
Miliband said some measure were being introduced now.
We are sanctioning a further set of extremist settlers who have supported or incited acts of violence against Palestinian communities.
And I can also announce that we are extending the existing global human rights regime such that it will enable swifter action to deter settlement expansion, including, crucially, seeking to prevent the development of E1.
I also want to address the question of arms sales. We’ve already suspended over 30 arms licences used by the IDF in Gaza. That suspension remains fully in place.
We will now also refuse all licence applications for arms and other exports that materially contribute to the occupation – in effect, a double lock against arms sales. This means the ban on such exports will now remain in place as long as the occupation persists.
Ban will take six to nine months to come into force, Miliband says
Miliband said the legislation he was announcing today would take six to nine months to come into effect.
Miliband says he ‘wholeheatedly’ opposes boycotting all Israeli goods because of his backing for two-state solution
Miliband said the new measures would “target illegal settlements and settlement expansion, not Israel”.
He said:
We will continue to support important and valued trade with green line Israel [Israel within the pre-1967 borders] precisely because we support the two-state solution, including security and prosperity for Israel.
For this reason, I wholeheartedly oppose the boycott, divestment, sanctions or BDS campaign.
Miliband also said adverts for land in illegal settlements would be banned
Earlier this year, shamefully just a few miles from here, we saw an expo advertising illegal settlement land. We must and we will ensure this never happens again.
So we so we will ban the advertising in the UK of illegal settlements.
Miliband confirms ban on goods from illegal settlements, and sanctions against firms backing settlements
Miliband confirmed the government is banning trade with the illegal settlements.
He said:
I do not believe 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.
To do so, we will introduce a new comprehensive sanctions regime … with appropriate religious exemptions.
And as part of this regime, we will go further. We will take action against specific companies and individuals who provide services such as construction, infrastructure financing or real estate for settlement expansion.
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.
Miliband says UK government now recognising UK’s occupation of West Bank as unlawful
Miliband defends using the term ethnic cleansing.
I recognise the gravity of saying this, but the truth is it is the least the people who face such such suffering deserve.
And it should be the prelude to justice.
He goes on:
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.
Today I announced that the official view of the British government is that the occupation is unlawful because because of Israel’s entrenchment of its control, its intention to extend permanent sovereignty and its expansionist agenda via illegal settlements.
Our position is not just an overdue statement of reality. The government believes the UN lawfulness of the occupation should be reflected in the economic relationships we choose to have with the occupied territories.
Miliband says ethnic cleansing happening in West Bank
Miliband says ethnic cleansing is happening in the West Bank.
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.
Miliband says backing two-state solution is ‘north star’ of government’s Israel policy
Miliband says many British Jews “live in fear in the face of rising antisemitism”.
He goes on:
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. 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.
Miliband says the government has spent £250m on measures to protect the Jewish community, but it must do more, he says.
I will in October hosted representatives of the G7, 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.
And he says there is no contradiction between supporting Israel and supporting the state of Palestine.
I’m 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 coexistence with freedom, security and self-determination.
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.
Miliband says security cooperation with Israel will continue.
Tackling these threats [from Iran] is just one of the most one of the important shared national security interests we have with Israel, on which we will continue to cooperate.
Miliband condemns Iran as threat to ‘Israel and Jews across the world’
Miliband goes on to condemn the 7 October “Hamas terrorist atrocity”.
It was a murderous act by a murderous terrorist organisation designed to massacre and instil fear across the whole population.
October 7 makes plain the grave threats the 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.
Miliband says Iran “continues to threaten Israel and Jews across the world”. He goes on:
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-Jihad 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.
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