Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Frank/Adobe Stock

As Israeli settler violence escalates and international pressure on its government mounts, the UK has halted imports and sanctioned those helping the settlements expand.

Israel's push to expand settlements on occupied territories and increasing settler violence has prompted the UK to impose unprecedented economic measures and brought coordinated international pressure on Israel to abide by international law. Announced by UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband in September, the UK plan halts imports from illegal West Bank settlements and creates sanctions targeting entities supplying construction, infrastructure, financing or real-estate services. The UK has also restricted services supporting settlers, including advertising, and sanction 'extremist settlers' accused of inciting violence.

Announcing the measures, Miliband adopted language rarely used by the UK government, Israel’s longtime ally. He referred to the violence as 'ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists' and he accused Israel's government of turning a blind eye. Rather than merely signalling typical diplomatic disapproval, the curbs target the economic settlement activity.

The E1 flashpoint

A major trigger for that international response is the highly controversial E1 settlement project, which would cut the West Bank in two by building more settlements and roads. Miliband warned that E1 would choke a two-state solution by 'cutting through the heart of Palestine', placing settlements between East Jerusalem and the West Bank and making a future contiguous Palestinian state impossible.

The penalties drew sharp rebuke from Israel's government. 'We did not return to our land after 2,000 years only to lose it under pressure from jihadists, Islamists, antisemites, far-leftists and wokes,' Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said in a speech. 'Not only will you fail to harm us, you will harm yourselves and your own influence.'

Israeli officials dismiss Western trade restrictions and legal sanctions as appeasement, asserting that the Israeli military adheres to international legal standards and national defence necessities. They also defend their plans on grounds that settlement construction occurs on land with historical and legal ties to Israel and that security operations in the West Bank focus on countering terrorism. They say the E1 project actually ensures territorial continuity between Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adumim and deny blocking a Palestinian state.

But the UK measures came with international legal backing after reports of persistent atrocities in the West Bank by settlers under the watch of Israeli soldiers. In recent documentation, UN bodies, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other monitoring organisations condemned a spreading pattern of settler violence and rights violations. The IBA's Human Rights Institute warned in a statement from July 2026, that 'continued expansion of Israeli settlements, land seizures, demolitions and settler violence across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem' and would lead to annexation or forced transfer. It explicitly called on Norway and the UK to sanction networks financing and enabling settler attacks and business activities in illegal settlements.

In September, Helena Kennedy, Director of the IBA's Human Rights Institute said events in the West Bank were increasingly showing a 'blatant disregard for international law by the State of Israel,' while co-chairs Mark Stephens and Hina Jilani warned that displacement and demographic change are entrenching unlawful occupation and impunity. Stephens urged states not to 'remain passive in the face of actions that risk normalising unlawful occupation, forcible transfer and impunity.'

Despite the international pressure, Israel has not backed down. In October, Israel ordered the closure of one of the historic British Consulate General in East Jerusalem and advanced construction tenders for over 1,000 units in the E1 corridor.

Israeli forces and settlers also ratcheted up attacks. In early October, UN Humanitarian Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov told the Security Council that sustained settler violence was already causing the full 'depopulation' of at least three Palestinian communities. He highlighted three families in Qusra 'effectively confined to their homes without adequate supplies and systematically harassed and intimidated since 9 August' by settlers and Israeli forces. Although he acknowledged that Israeli officials had moved to prosecute a handful of perpetrators, he stressed that most crimes had still escaped accountability.

As the annual Palestinian olive harvest, essential for many Palestinian livelihoods, commenced in early October, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and Palestinian WAFA news agency reported yet another major surge in settler attacks targeting Palestinian olive harvesters, destroying dozens of olive trees and physically assaulting farmers in Nablus, Hebron and Tubas. OCHA said it counted at least 200 attacks so far this season, more than all attacks last year combined.

Call for protection

UN figures show that 4,000 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been displaced since early 2026 by demolitions, settler violence and access restrictions, while more than 1,100 structures have been demolished under Israeli government permit-denial pretexts.

Settlers have used harvest season to deprive Palestinians of income, mirroring broader approaches that make Palestinian livelihoods impossible. The UN's Alakbarov told the Security Council that Israel continues to withhold roughly $6 billion in clearance revenues from the Palestinian Authority, leaving it 'unable to deliver basic services, sustain social protection, or pay full salaries to civil servants and security personnel.'

Amid this wave of violent settler attacks and Israeli economic and financial pressure, the Palestinian Authority made an urgent appeal to the UN Security Council, demanding direct international 'protection forces' to shield their vulnerable communities in the West Bank.

The appeal shows that the UK and international measures are yet to yield a tangible impact on the ground or squeeze Israel to budge. The economic scale of West Bank settlement exports to the UK historically represents a tiny share of total Israeli-UK trade. And so far, the measures have done little to halt Israel's aggressive and often bloody expansion in the West Bank.

Emad Mekay is a freelance journalist and can be contacted at emad.mekay@int-bar.org