Andy Burnham said Britain was standing up for the ‘underdog’ Palestinians today as he faced criticism over trade sanctions on illegal Israeli West Bank settlements.
The Prime Minister said the UK would always stand against ‘injustice’ as he faced MPs the day after sparking a row with domestic Jewish leaders and Benjamin Netanyahu‘s government.
Israel said it was closing a British consulate in East Jerusalem and banning a dozen MPs from entering the country in retaliation for a comprehensive sanctions regime targeting companies and individuals in the occupied area.
And Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said the action announced by Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband was just ‘gesture politics’ and would ‘further embolden those, at home and abroad, who use hatred as a weapon against Jews’.
Mr Burnham is also waiting to see if the so-far silent Donald Trump will also launch reprisals. But tackling the backlash head-on at Prime Minister’s Questions, the premier told MPs Britain was showing ‘leadership on the world stage’ and that support for a two-state solution must be backed by action.
‘Britain has to stand for fairness against injustice. Where people are being bullied out of their homes, intimidated, we will always stand with the underdog and take what action we can to support them,’ he added.
Andy Burnham said the UK would always stand against ‘injustice’ as he faced MPs a day after sparking a major row with domestic Jewish leaders and Benjamin Netanyahu’s government
Israel said it was closing a British consulate in East Jerusalem and banning a dozen MPs from entering the country in retaliation for a comprehensive sanctions regime targeting companies and individuals in the occupied area
The Government is still waiting to hear Donald Trump’s reaction to the sanctions – which have been coordinated with other countries including Canada and France
In an excoriating open letter, Rabbi Leo Dee – whose wife and two daughters were killed by Palestinian terrorists in the Jordan Valley in 2023 – accused Mr Miliband of ‘hypocrisy’.
Kemi Badenoch joined the condemnation, saying the Government risked ‘fanning the flames of anti-Semitism at home’ in order to appease those deserting Labour for the Greens.
The Tory leader said Labour was ‘escalating its campaign against Israel, throwing British interests under the bus to win back Islamist and far left activist votes’.
The move was announced as the party gears up for battle in a by-election for Sir Keir Starmer’s former seat of Holborn and St Pancras, with Greens seeking to put Palestine at the heart of their campaign.
Countries including France and Canada coordinated their own sanctions with the UK in an effort to revive the push for a two-state solution.
Asked today for his response to Israel’s countermeasures, Mr Miliband told Sky News: ‘I regret what the Israeli government has announced, but I’m proud of what we did yesterday and it was the right thing to do.’
Ed Miliband insisted he was ‘proud’ of the Government’s ban on trade with West Bank settlements despite a wave of anger
He said: ‘It will be damaging, that’s true, but we weighed up the costs and the benefits in advance of this.
‘And we did something very important. We talked to the representatives of the Palestinian people, the Palestinian prime minister, the representative here, and they both said to us with a very clear voice, you need to act from our point of view.’
He added: ‘I would prefer that Israel hadn’t announced what it did, but overall, I strongly believe that what we did, along with other international allies, was absolutely the right thing to do.’
Mr Miliband said he was ‘confident’ that security co-operation with Israel would continue, despite fears about sharing of intelligence about terrorism.
Pressed on the chief rabbi’s criticism, Mr Miliband said: ‘I’m a proud British Jew and I don’t agree with the chief rabbi.
‘I have great respect for the chief rabbi, but I don’t agree with him.
‘And I believe that it must be possible to do what we did yesterday, which is to stand up for British values of the rule of law, of dignity for people, of the prevention of injustice, and do so in a way, as I did yesterday, to say to anyone in our country who holds British Jews responsible for the actions of the Israeli government: that is anti-Semitism, pure and simple.
‘And we all need to do more to tackle anti-Semitism. But I believe we can do that and stand up for British values.’
Britain’s Chief Rabbi (pictured on November 19, 2023) said a trade ban on Israeli settlements in the West Bank was ‘truly a dark day for British Jews’
Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar announced that the UK’s consulate in Jerusalem would be closed as part of a package of retaliatory measures.
He also said Israel would ban 11 MPs and a campaigner involved in what he claimed was ‘antisemitic and anti-Israel activity’ from entry to the country.
They include former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott.
Mr Saar said he had spoken to Mrs Badenoch and thanked her for her opposition to the ‘hostile Labour Government’s announcement’.
The Israeli retaliation came after Mr Miliband told the Commons that a ‘new approach’ was necessary because plans for the E1 development in the West Bank would render a two-state solution ‘unviable’ by ‘cutting through the heart of Palestine’.
He said more settlements had been approved under the four years of Mr Netanyahu’s government than in the previous 20 years and settler terrorism in the West Bank was ‘rampant’.
Legislation for the new regime could take up to nine months to put in place, Mr Miliband said, but he promised immediate sanctions against ‘extremist settlers who have supported or incited acts of violence’.
Mike Huckabee, the American ambassador to Israel, described the ban as an ‘irrational act’.
But in a more mixed response, US secretary of state Marco Rubio declined to comment on the announcement beyond saying the US would ‘obviously’ not follow suit, and Donald Trump has yet to comment.
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