UK suspends free trade negotiations with Israel
Israel’s Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely summoned to Foreign Office over the expansion of military operations in Gaza
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
The UK has suspended free trade negotiatiions with Israel, David Lammy has confirmed.
Minister for the Middle East Hamish Falconer has also summoned Israel’s Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office over the expansion of military operations in Gaza.
In a statement to Parliament, the Foreign Secretary announced the formal pause of Free Trade Agreement negotiations with Israel, effective immediately.
Lammy said:”Netanyahu’s actions have made this necessary.”
He told MPs the UK could not stand by in the face of new deterioration to the situation in Gaza.
“It is incompatible with the principles that underpin our bilateral relationship,” said Lammy.
“Frankly, it is an afront to the values of the British people.
“Therefore today I’m announcing that we have suspended neogotiations with this Israeli government on a new free trade deal.
“We will be reviewing co-operation with them under the 2030 bilataral relationship.”
The announcement came as Falconer summoned Israel’s Ambassador Hotovely.
The Middle East minister said: “Today I will set out to Ambassador Hotovely the government’s opposition to the wholly disproportionate escalation of military activity in Gaza and emphasise that the 11-week block on aid to Gaza has been cruel and indefensible. I will urge Israel to halt settlement expansion and settler violence in the West Bank.
“Israel must abide by its obligations under International Humanitarian Law and ensure full, rapid, safe and unhindered provision of humanitarian assistance to the population in Gaza. The limited amount of aid entering is simply not enough.
“We must get an immediate ceasefire and the release of all hostages and a path to a two-state solution is the only way to ensure the long-term peace and security of both Palestinians and Israelis.”
Lammy also told the Commons: “Civilians in Gaza facing starvation, homelessness, trauma, desperate for this war to end, now confront renewed bombardment, new displacement and new suffering, and the remaining hostages kept apart from their loved ones by Hamas for almost 600 days are now at heightened risk from the war around them.
“Two months ago the ceasefire collapsed. Since then the humanitarian catastrophe has rapidly intensified. For 11 weeks Israeli forces have blockaded Gaza, leaving the World Food Programme without any – any – remaining stocks. Israel has repeatedly struck hospitals, with three more hospitals in northern Gaza ceasing operations this weekend, yet more aid workers and medical workers have been killed.”
He added: “We are now entering a dark new phase in this conflict. Netanyahu’s government is planning to drive Gazans from their homes into a corner of the strip to the south and permit them a fraction of the aid that they need. Yesterday, Minister Smotrich even spoke of Israeli forces cleansing Gaza, destroying what’s left of residents, Palestinians being relocated, he said, to third countries.”
He also said he wants “strong friendship” based on “shared values” with the Israeli people.
The spokesperson for the Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oren Marmorstein, responded robustly to the Foreign Secretary’s announcement, saying: “Even prior to today’s announcement, the free trade agreement negotiations were not being advanced at all by the current UK government. More than that, the agreement would serve the mutual benefit of both countries. If, due to anti-Israel obsession and domestic political considerations, the British government is willing to harm the British economy — that is its own prerogative.”
Marmorstein, who up until recently served as Israel’s Deputy Ambassador to the UK, noted that “The British Mandate ended exactly 77 years ago. External pressure will not divert Israel from its path in defending its existence and security against enemies who seek its destruction.
The UK also announced new sanctions on multiple prominent West Bank figures the including veteran settler activist Danielle Weiss who featured in presenter Louis Theroux’s recent BBC documentary.
Lammy confirmed the move against head of the Nachala movement for involvement in threatening, perpetrating, permitting and supporting acts of aggression and violence against Palestinian individuals.
Lammy said: “I have seen for myself the consequences of settler violence. The fear of its victims. The impunity of its perpetrators.
“The sanctioning of Daniella Weiss and others today demonstrates our determination to hold extremist settlers to account as Palestinian communities suffer violence and intimidation at the hands of extremist settlers.
“The Israeli government has a responsibility to intervene and halt these aggressive actions. Their consistent failure to act is putting Palestinian communities and the two-state solution in peril.”
Others expected to be on the list were Zohar Sabah Libi Construction and Infrastructure LTD., Harel Libi and Coco’s Farm Outpost, and Neria’s Farm outpost, including “persons residing in the outpost, for involvement in human rights abuses.”
The Israeli MFA described the sanction announcements as “unjustified, and regrettable, especially at a time when Israel is mourning yet another victim of Palestinian terror — Tzeela Gez, of blessed memory, who was murdered on her way to the delivery room. Doctors continue fighting for her newborn’s life in hospital.”
Weiss featured throughout the recent documentary The Settlers attempting to drive her car into Gaza, and calling for a Greater Israel with no Palestinians from the River to the Sea.
Earlier Keir Starmer said Britain “cannot allow the people of Gaza to starve” and that levels of suffering in the strip were “utterly intolerable”.
“The recent announcement that Israel will allow a basic quantity of food into Gaza is totally and utterly inadequate,” he told MPs.
“So we must coordinate our response, because this war has gone on for far too long. We cannot allow the people of Gaza to starve.”
On Monday, the UK, France and Canada issued a joint statement calling on the Israeli government to stop its military operations in Gaza and immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter, working with the UN to do so.
Despite the joint statement also calling for an end to Hamas’s control of Gaza, the terrorist group subsequently praised it as “a step in the right direction.”
Later Tory MP Mark Pritchard said he backed the government’s statement on Israel, while shadow foreign secretary strugggled for support as she attempted to raise concerns about the decision to act in such a way.
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