Thornberry claims Starmer government too soft on Israel over settlements

Foreign Affairs Select Committee chair Emily Thornberry has claimed that the UK government is “failing the Palestinian people” by doing “too little, too late” to prevent Israeli settlement expansion.

Speaking in Westminster on Monday night at an event organised by Medical Aid for Palestinians and the Council on Arab-British Understanding, the Labour MP argued that Keir Starmer’s government had “fallen well short” in taking strong action against Israel since recognising a Palestinian state last September.

“We should be banning the import of goods produced in illegal settlements,” Thornberry said. “We should be placing sanctions on those involved in the settlements, stopping the involvement of any British companies, and coming down hard on insurance networks.”

She continued: “We should make it clear that constructing settlements on the West Bank is unacceptable, and we will do everything possible to stop it.”

Thornberry insisted that diplomatic recognition should have been only the first step: “Where is the second step, where is the tenth step, what are we doing?”

She questioned claims of a genuine ceasefire in Gaza and referenced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s threat to take over 70 percent of the region, adding: “The sense of impunity is staggering.”

During her speech—met with loud applause—she also said, “Let’s act together to make settlement expansion so economically painful for Israel that it becomes untenable.

“What is happening in the West Bank is unbearable: families driven from their homes, communities under constant threat, Palestinians being lynched in the streets. That is what we should be confronting. Words of condemnation are just not going to cut it.”