Israel announces measures against Britain over West Bank settlement sanctions

JERUSALEM -- Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar on Tuesday announced a series of countermeasures against Britain, including closing the British Consulate General in East Jerusalem and removing British personnel from a US-led Gaza coordination center, in response to London's decision to ban imports from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

At a press conference, Sa'ar said the British Consulate General in East Jerusalem, Britain's main diplomatic mission to the Palestinians, would be shut down.

British representatives would be removed from the US-led Civil-Military Coordination Center in southern Israel, he added.

Sa'ar said that Israel would bar 12 British officials deemed "anti-Israel" from entering the country and end the activities of the British Support Team in Ramallah, a military mission that assists Palestinian Authority security forces.

Earlier on Tuesday, British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced the import ban and additional sanctions targeting settlement expansion, citing "ethnic cleansing of Palestinians" by "settler terrorists" in parts of the West Bank.

France and Canada on Tuesday also announced plans to ban imports from Israeli settlements as a wider group of 12 countries said they would introduce or support trade curbs against settlements, citing rising settler violence and expansion.

Sa'ar rejected Miliband's accusations as "outrageous and wrong," saying that Israel's decision to advance construction in the so-called "E1" area of the occupied West Bank had been made more than a year ago, and arguing that two planned roads would preserve Palestinian territorial contiguity.

Israel last month opened a tender for 1,234 housing units in E1, part of a wider plan for about 3,400 homes.

Sa'ar asserted that the Israeli public "overwhelmingly supports" the settlers and opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state.

He also warned that Israel could take similar measures against other countries, saying, "Whoever acts against Israel, Israel will act against them."

More than half a million Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in 1967, alongside about 3.4 million Palestinians, according to Palestinian and Israeli sources. Recent years have seen a sharp rise in violence against Palestinians, with near-daily attacks by settlers and Israeli forces, often resulting in fatalities.

Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are considered illegal under international law.