In a landmark shift in Middle East policy, the United Kingdom has announced a series of unprecedented measures targeting Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank, marking the first time the country has explicitly barred economic engagement in these unauthorized outposts. The new policy framework comes alongside coordinated fresh sanctions targeting networks that fund and facilitate violent attacks against Palestinian communities, rolled out in partnership with key allies including France, Norway, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
Under the new policy, the UK government will issue explicit guidance warning British businesses against all economic and financial activity within Israel’s illegal West Bank settlements. Officials clarified that the measure does not alter the UK’s longstanding commitment to normal trade with Israel within its 1967 pre-war borders, drawing a clear legal and geographic distinction between legitimate trade with Israel and prohibited activity in occupied territory. In total, the UK will impose sanctions on six entities and one individual linked to settler violence and expansion.
Two of the sanctioned groups stand out as core enablers of illegal settlement activity: the Farms Association, which the UK says provides financial and logistical backing for settler farms and outposts tied to violence, intimidation and forced displacement of Palestinian residents; and Ari Artzenu, a hardline settler organization that actively promotes, funds and equips outposts linked to attacks on Palestinian communities.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper is set to lay out the new measures before UK Parliament on Tuesday, framing the action as a targeted response to a growing threat to regional peace. “Today we are acting with our international partners to sanction those who support and sponsor violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank,” Cooper is expected to state. “Settler expansion and violence is illegal and a fundamental threat to the viability of a two-state solution, and to long-term peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis. These measures show the UK is leading with our partners to target those who are fuelling this violence.”
The new steps come against a backdrop of mounting pressure on the UK government to take stronger action, and fall short of the full import ban on goods originating from illegal settlements that more than 230 Members of Parliament have called for this week. The gap between legislative demands and executive action marks a notable political tension: while in opposition, the current ruling Labour Party explicitly supported a full import ban, with then-Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy arguing in 2020 that such a move required “courage that so far ministers have not been willing to show.” According to reporting from Middle East Eye, government ministers privately acknowledge that a full ban would align with the UK’s existing legal position on the status of occupied Palestinian territories, even as they have stopped short of enacting one.
The new guidance is already expected to have far-reaching ripple effects on UK domestic policy, particularly for local government pension funds. Over the past two years, dozens of UK local authorities have passed votes to divest from and boycott companies linked to Israeli occupation, war crimes or arms sales to Israel. Multiple major councils including Islington, Lewisham, Wandsworth and Caerphilly have already removed companies listed by the United Nations as operating in occupied Palestinian territories from their pension fund portfolios. However, the Labour government’s stance on local boycotts has been contradictory: earlier this year, Communities Secretary Steve Reed warned Labour-run local councils that they could face legal action for boycotting Israeli businesses, directing authorities to follow a 2016 national guidance that bans procurement boycotts against Israeli firms and businesses trading with Israel.
This latest policy announcement builds on a series of increasingly harsh UK measures against settlement activity and far-right Israeli figures in recent months. In May 2025, the Labour government imposed sanctions on multiple prominent hardline Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including Daniella Weiss, a veteran settler activist and leader of the extremist Nachala movement. Last June, the UK joined several allies in sanctioning two far-right Israeli cabinet ministers, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, over their repeated incitement to violence against Palestinian communities in both the West Bank and Gaza.
The new UK policy aligns with a landmark 2024 advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice, which ruled that Israel’s long-running occupation of Palestinian territory violates international law. The ICJ ruling explicitly clarified that it is illegal under international law for an occupying power to transfer its own civilian population into occupied territory, or to forcibly displace or deport local Palestinian populations.
Data from leading Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem underscores the urgency of the crisis the new measures target: since October 7, 2023, Israel has displaced 59 entire Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank, comprising more than 4,000 people who have been forcibly removed from their land.
This coverage is sourced from independent reporting by Middle East Eye, which provides unmatched independent reporting and analysis on the Middle East, North Africa and broader global affairs.