Herzog calls UK settlement sanctions a grave miscalculation

Update, 9 September, 04:08 Israel time

President Isaac Herzog has spoken publicly about the British measures, addressing what was then still an expected announcement. In remarks distributed by the President's Spokesperson at an awards ceremony at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, Herzog said British trade sanctions on Israeli products from Judea and Samaria would prove to be a grave miscalculation and a decision falling on the wrong side of history, and that other nations might join. He described the step, in the current context, as gross interference in the democratic elections of a sovereign nation, said it would directly harm Palestinians by depriving them of business and employment, and urged foreign governments to step away from sanctions and boycotts in favour of dialogue and cooperation.

Ynet characterised the episode as an intelligence and diplomatic failure, reporting that Israeli officials were caught by surprise by the British effort to assemble a coalition behind sanctions, and arguing that ministers' statements and a lack of enforcement against Jewish rioters in the territories had given the measures momentum.

Writing in Haaretz, Esther Solomon described Miliband's Commons statement as pre-empting the main counter-arguments, with opposition questions sounding hollow by comparison.

The Axios correspondent Barak Ravid, in further posts on X, listed Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Britain among the countries he said had turned against the Israeli government's position, and wrote that such states distinguish between Israel and the settlement enterprise.

The story as first reported

The United Kingdom announced a package of sanctions and trade restrictions aimed at Israeli settlements in the West Bank, with British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband setting out the measures in the House of Commons. The Jerusalem Post reported that Miliband accused settlers of ethnic cleansing as the government imposed what it described as sweeping sanctions, and that he spoke on the day of a cabinet meeting at Downing Street on 8 September 2026.

In a separate report, The Jerusalem Post said Miliband referred in his remarks to 60 of his relatives who were murdered in the Holocaust before announcing the measures against Israel. The paper also published a comment piece criticising the Foreign Secretary, headlined around the description of him as a "proud British Jew" who had turned his back on Britain's Jews.

What the measures cover

The material available describes restrictions on goods imported from settlements in the West Bank rather than a general trade ban on Israel. Hamas, in a statement carried by the Israeli monitoring channel Abu Ali Express, referred to "the imposition of sanctions by Britain and other countries on goods imported from the settlements in the West Bank", calling it an important step in the right direction but not sufficient. The same statement said the British foreign minister's use of the term "ethnic cleansing" to describe settler crimes was also a step in the right direction and also insufficient.

The reports do not itemise which entities or individuals are named in the sanctions list, nor do they set out when the trade restrictions take effect.

The government's explanation

Two Israeli outlets, News.co.il and N12, reported that British Prime Minister Andy Burnham explained the sanctions in a post on X. According to their translation of his words, the government had hesitated too long to act out of concern that it would be accused of being anti-Israel, and was now announcing targeted and carefully weighed steps directed not against the people of Israel but against what he called the unacceptable policy of the current Israeli government.

Separately, the Axios correspondent Barak Ravid posted a Hebrew statement on X warning that if the Israeli government does not act against Jewish terrorists, against violence and against the expulsion of residents from their homes, the world will act against Israel, beginning with economic restrictions on settlements in the territories but not ending there. The post as supplied does not identify who was speaking.

Why settlements are the pressure point

Israeli settlements are communities built in the West Bank, territory Israel captured in the Six Day War and has administered since. Most governments, including Britain's, treat them as unlawful under international law, a position Israel rejects. That distinction is what allows a European government to target settlement-linked goods and individuals while continuing to trade with Israel proper, and it is the framework Burnham invoked when he separated the Israeli public from the policies of the current government.

The term "ethnic cleansing", used by a serving British foreign secretary about settlers, is the element that has drawn the sharpest reaction in the Israeli press. The Jerusalem Post's coverage focused both on the language and on Miliband's own identity as a British Jew, including his invocation of family members killed in the Holocaust.

What the reports do not say

The material does not give the legal instrument used, the number of individuals or organisations sanctioned, or the value of the trade affected. It does not include an official Israeli government response, nor a statement from Israel's foreign ministry or prime minister's office. The full text of Miliband's Commons statement is not reproduced in any of the reports.

Hamas referred to sanctions imposed by Britain "and other countries", but the reports do not name those countries or say whether their measures were announced on the same day. Nor do the sources indicate whether the British measures were coordinated with other governments. Readers should treat the wording attributed to Burnham as a translation from Hebrew of an English-language post, and the quotation marks in this report reflect that.