Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said on Tuesday that there would be consequences for London should the United Kingdom implement measures targeting Judea and Samaria it has said it is considering.
Asked during an appearance on Ynet’s 120 and One podcast, Sa’ar was asked about Tuesday’s announcement by British Foreign Minister Ed Miliband that the United Kingdom was preparing to join Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland in introducing measures targeting Israeli products from Judea and Samaria.
“We are preparing. I hope they won’t make that mistake,” said Sa’ar. “If they do, there will be a reaction. Gone are the days that one can act against Israel without it responding,” he continued. A British ban on products from Judea and Samaria at this time would be considered election interference, he said. Israel’s general election is scheduled for Oct. 27.
Israel has, for example, barred Dutch and Spanish representatives from participating in the U.S.-led International Gaza Support Center in the southern Israeli city of Kiryat Gat.
Miliband confirmed on Tuesday in Parliament that the government was working on “measures to ban the trading of goods with illegal settlements.” He added that Cabinet ministers were examining ways to prevent British companies from financing, building or advertising in Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria.
This was in response to Israel’s advancement last month of plans for the construction of hundreds of homes in the E1 area in Ma’aleh Adumim in Judea, east of Jerusalem. Proponents of the establishment of a Palestinian state, including the United Kingdom, protested the move, arguing that it would damage the territorial continuity of such a state.
“Britain will not stand back and accept the destruction of the Two-State Solution,” the U.K. Foreign Office wrote in an Aug. 19 statement. “In the coming weeks we will set out a comprehensive set of measures to respond to Israeli government policies, protect the viability of the Palestinian state, target sanctions at those who participate in illegal settlement expansion and support a just and lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians.”
Norway’s government is also promoting a ban on goods from Judea and Samaria. Slovenia reversed its ban earlier this year, when the previous government of Robert Golob, a critic of Israel, was replaced by the government headed by the pro-Israel politician Janez Janša.
