Israeli ministers urge reprisals as UK mulls sanctions

Two senior Israeli Cabinet ministers called on Tuesday for punitive diplomatic measures against the United Kingdom following reports that it would announce fresh sanctions against Israelis in Judea and Samaria later in the day.

Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, called for the British ambassador to be “expelled” immediately, adding: “We will not be a doormat trampled by an antisemitic government, in a country conquered by radical Islam, trying to save itself from economic and social decline by attacking Jews and the State of Israel.”

Ben-Gvir called in a Spanish-language post on X to recognize “that the Malvinas Islands are Argentine territory under occupation, which the British violently are stealing from the Argentine people.” This was a reference to the decades-long British-Argentine dispute over the territory, which in the United Kingdom is called the Falkland Islands.

“The British are not content with merely occupying the territory; they also carry out oil drilling there and steal the money from the Argentine people,” Ben-Gvir’s X-post continued. He also called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “impose sanctions on Great Britain as long as the occupation continues.”

According to the BBC, the United Kingdom was set to announce on Tuesday a ban on trade with Israelis in Judea and Samaria, or in their products on British soil. British Foreign Minister Ed Miliband had previously said there would be a “reset” of British-Israeli relations following Israel’s plans to build new homes in the E1 area in Ma’aleh Adumim, east of Jerusalem.

Richard Tice, a lawmaker for the Reform UK Party and deputy to the party’s leader, Nigel Farage, also condemned the plan to ban Israeli products from Judea and Samaria. “Sanctions imposed by this hard left, anti-Jew Burnham Government against Israel will embolden antisemitic hate crimes in UK, are damaging to our international standing with U.S. and Israel, two of our most important security partners. It is self-destructive virtue signaling that will make us less safe,” Tice wrote on X.

U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told the BBC on Tuesday that the planned sanctions were “discrimination against the Israeli government” and “discrimination against the Jewish People,” in addition to being irresponsible. “The U.K. is a sovereign country, they can do what they want, but so is the U.S.,” he said.

Andy Burnham replaced Keir Starmer as U.K. prime minister and Labour leader earlier this year.

Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sarcastically referred to the United Kingdom as “the Islamic Republic of Britain,” triggering an uproar. The remark reflected a low point in British-Israel relations, which have been declining steadily for nearly three years.

The deterioration began in 2024, when Labour replaced the Conservative Party as the ruling party. While still in the opposition, Labour had asked the government to demand that Israel refrain from pursuing its campaign against Hamas in Gaza in response to Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 massacre in Israel.

The Labour government repeatedly clashed publicly with Israel, using increasingly forceful language, including a July 29, 2025, call for it to “stop the slaughter” in Gaza. The phrase echoed rhetoric used by anti-Israel protesters who had gathered by the thousands in London to demonstrate against the Jewish state.

Britain recognized a Palestinian state in September 2025, alongside Australia and Canada. France also recognized “Palestine” that year. The decision followed Britain’s suspension of roughly 30 arms-export licenses covering equipment deemed potentially usable in Israel’s military operations against Hamas in Gaza.

The Labour-led government in London imposed a travel ban on Smotrich and Ben-Gvir last year over their support for Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria.

If the U.K. bans trade in Israeli Judea and Samaria products, it will join Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium in adopting such a policy.