Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband rejects a claim by the UK’s chief rabbi that the government’s new sanctions on Israeli settlement activities could put British Jews in greater danger. BBC and The Guardian report that Miliband says Sir Ephraim Mirvis is wrong to link the sanctions to increased risk for Jewish communities in Britain.
Both outlets describe Miliband’s broader response as separating the question of the government’s actions on Israeli settlements from the issue of antisemitism at home. Miliband argues that ministers can address antisemitism while also confronting the policies of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, according to The Guardian. BBC reports the same overall disagreement, focusing on Miliband’s rejection of Mirvis’s warning.
The Guardian also details what the sanctions include: an import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank; restrictions on arms licences and other exports that “materially contribute to the occupation”; limits on services such as construction or financing for settlements; a ban on advertising settlements in the UK; and personal sanctions on individuals accused of promoting settler violence. The outlets present Mirvis’s concerns as a claim about domestic safety, while Miliband frames the government’s measures as a response to the legality of settlement activity.
