Britain, France, others to impose sanctions on Israel over West Bank settlements; Israel reacts

The UK, France, and other countries have imposed sanctions on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said Israel had "turned a blind eye" to violence carried out by settlers against Palestinians and accused the Netanyahu-led government of tacitly backing ethnic cleansing, according to Premium Times.

In response, Israel has ordered the UK to close its consulate in East Jerusalem within 30 days. British diplomats working at the consulate will also lose their diplomatic status, and UK officials assigned to a US-led Gaza coordination mission in Israel, as well as British diplomats based in Ramallah, have been given seven days to leave, as reported by the Daily Maverick.

Miliband defended the UK's decision to impose sanctions, stating that it was the right thing to do, despite Israel's retaliatory measures. He also expressed confidence that the security agency relationship between the UK and Israel would survive, particularly in regards to intelligence cooperation on Iran, as reported by The National Business and the Jerusalem Post.

Brief written by urgent.news from Premium Times, Daily Maverick, Haaretz, Jerusalem Post, The National Business — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.