UK awards deals worth millions to firms linked to illegal Israeli settlements

The British government recently awarded £10.7 million in public contracts to companies linked to illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, despite sanctions announced by Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband in September, according to an Al Jazeera investigation. The contracts were published after Miliband vowed to enforce the sanctions, which could take up to nine months to implement.

Motorola Solutions, Heidelberg Materials, and other firms have been awarded contracts for police communications, roadworks, and resurfacing. The UN lists these companies as engaging in settlement-related activities, with Heidelberg Materials' Israeli subsidiary owning a quarry in the West Bank. Despite some civil servants allegedly causing "blockages," Miliband remains determined to uphold the sanctions, which would require British banks, pension funds, and asset managers to divest from settlement-related companies and halt financial services that support settlement activity.