A coalition of over 40 leading figures from Britain’s Arab community has issued a high-profile call for the UK government to translate its verbal condemnation of illegal Israeli settlements into tangible, legally binding action that cuts off British economic support for continued settlement expansion.
In an open joint letter addressed to Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, dated August 24, 2026, the signatories argue the UK must now uphold the international legal obligations it has already publicly acknowledged. These obligations, they note, include the core duties of non-recognition of illegal settlements, non-assistance to settlement activity, and formal legal differentiation between the state of Israel and the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War.
The letter frames the current global conversation around settlements as having moved far past the debate over whether the settlements themselves are unlawful under international law. Instead, the central question now facing Western governments like the UK is whether the current mix of voluntary industry guidance, limited tariff differentiation, and narrow targeted sanctions is actually sufficient to meet the country’s binding international legal commitments. This includes the clear obligation outlined by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its landmark 2024 advisory opinion to block any trade or investment activity that serves to sustain or expand illegal settlement construction.
Signatories to the letter span multiple sectors of British civil society, including leading voices from Palestinian advocacy groups, legal associations, health worker coalitions, and grassroots solidarity movements. Notable signatories include Adnan Hmidan, chair of the Palestinian Forum in Britain; Sabah Almukhtar, president of the UK’s Arab Lawyers Association; Dr. Omar Abdel-Mannan, head of Health Workers 4 Palestine; and Feda Shahin, secretary general of the Palestine Solidarity Movement, among dozens of other prominent public figures. The letter remains open for additional public signatures from across British society.
Among the concrete policy measures the coalition calls for are legally binding restrictions on all UK economic activity that generates profits for or supports settlement expansion, the extension of existing UK sanctions to cover both individual actors and private companies tied to settlements, mandatory full differentiation between Israel and occupied territories in all UK government procurement processes and public sector engagements, and coordinated action with international allies to prevent bad actors from circumventing restrictions via third-country corporate structures.
The letter emphasizes that the UK already holds full domestic legal authority to implement these measures under the 2018 Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act. It also anchors the demands in prior UK diplomatic commitments: the UK’s 2016 vote in support of a binding UN Security Council resolution that confirmed Israeli settlements have no legal validity, and the ICJ’s July 2024 advisory opinion that ruled Israel’s prolonged presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is unlawful and ordered an immediate end to all settlement activity.
Beyond economic measures, the coalition is pushing the UK to work with global partners to establish a formal international protection mechanism to shield Palestinian civilians from escalating settler violence. This request draws on a 1994 UN resolution that the UK itself co-sponsored, which laid the groundwork for international protection for Palestinian communities. The proposed mechanism would include independent third-party monitoring of violence, systematic documentation of displacement and abuses, and targeted protection support for communities at highest risk of attack.
The letter explicitly clarifies that these demands do not amount to a call for hostility toward the state of Israel or ordinary Israeli citizens, nor do they seek indiscriminate restrictions on fully legal trade with Israel within Israel’s 1948 borders. Instead, the signatories argue that Britain’s long-stated commitment to upholding international rule of law cannot only be expressed through rhetorical statements of principle—it must be demonstrated through consistent, effective policy implementation.
The call comes as the UK government has already signaled it is preparing new action over Israel’s controversial E1 settlement plan, a proposed expansion east of Jerusalem that would cut the occupied West Bank into two disconnected parts and effectively eliminate the territorial contiguity required for a viable Palestinian state under a two-state solution. Earlier this month, Foreign Secretary Miliband publicly condemned the E1 plan, warning it poses an existential threat to the two-state solution and confirming he had formally called on Israel to halt all settlement expansion. Miliband also noted that the UK would lay out a broader package of new measures in the coming weeks, leaving space for the government to adopt some of the changes the British-Arab coalition is calling for.