8 Muslim states, including UAE, call for countries to follow UK in sanctioning settlements

A group of eight Muslim-majority countries, including Israel’s ally the United Arab Emirates, praised the United Kingdom on Wednesday for announcing that it will impose sanctions on Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and called on other countries to do the same.

The foreign ministers of Qatar, Turkey, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, in a joint statement, said they “welcome the decision of the Government of the United Kingdom to ban the import of goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

The statement came a day after British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced sweeping sanctions and a total ban on all dealings with West Bank settlements.

Shortly after Miliband’s speech, the leaders of the UK, France and Canada issued a joint statement confirming that they would “take steps to ban the importation of goods from settlements and enforce targeted measures against settlements and those who facilitate them or profit from them.”

Then, Canada, France, the UK, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden released a separate statement promising they would also “introduce national and/or support European restrictions on trade in goods with settlements,” or were at least “actively considering” doing so.

Acknowledging these steps, the eight foreign ministers expressed “the hope that this decision will help mobilize the international community to take similar actions in line with international law and hold accountable settlement organizations and individuals engaged in illegal settlement activities.”

The ministers said they also “reiterate their call for Israel to rescind all measures taken in connection with settlement activities and other measures aimed at altering the geographic and demographic character of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Separately, the statement called for “the full and immediate implementation” of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point postwar plan in Gaza, and for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem, a notion that Israel rejects.

“The Ministers underscore that the only viable path to achieving a just, lasting and comprehensive peace is the implementation of the two-state solution, through the realization of an independent, sovereign, contiguous and viable Palestinian State,” the statement concluded.

In the wake of Miliband’s speech on Tuesday, Israel announced a series of retaliatory measures against the UK, including the closure of the British consulate in Jerusalem, which serves Palestinians.

Other measures ordered by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar included the expulsion of UK representatives from an international Gaza support center and the termination of British activities to train Palestinian Authority security forces.

The UK ban on dealings with West Bank settlements comes amid soaring settler violence against Palestinians on a near-daily basis — an issue that Miliband said the British government views as amounting to “ethnic cleansing of Palestinians… perpetrated by settler terrorists.”

Arrests of Israelis involved in these attacks are rare, and critics have accused the government of condoning or even encouraging the violence.

Agencies contributed to this report.