Today’s announcement of a ban on imports from illegal Israeli settlements, the suspension of additional arms export licences to Israel and the other measures outlined are a positive step toward ending Britain’s decades-long complicity in Israel’s violations of international law, and we welcome them. These have been core demands of the movement in Britain for Palestinian rights, and their adoption shows that the mass movement for Palestine is making a difference.
In accepting that Israel’s occupation as a whole is illegal, as confirmed by the ICJ in July 2024, the British government concedes that Israel has no lawful claim to the territory it occupies, and that its settlement of that land has never had a legal basis. A recognition long overdue, but one that finally removes any ambiguity about what Britain believes is happening in Palestine, including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
But a ban on goods, finance, construction and advertising of settlements is just the beginning.
Whilst it is right for the government to refuse additional arms export licences, loopholes remain that have allowed the continuation of F-35 components to be exported, even at the height of the genocide. If the government is serious about ending complicity, a full two-way arms embargo must follow.
Settlements are one part of a wider system of occupation and apartheid across historic Palestine, and extending to the millions of Palestinian refugees living outside their homeland whose right of return has yet to be implemented. Israel’s entire system of colonial occupation and apartheid must be dismantled, and we will continue to push for the complete implementation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.
Nearly three years of marches, boycotts and relentless grassroots organising by the movement for Palestine made this moment impossible to avoid.
Today must be a floor, not a ceiling. Join us on the next national march, 10 October.