The Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) lobby group has published a report apparently justifying some illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine and urging the British government not to ban goods produced by them.
This comes as Andy Burnham’s Labour government is believed to be considering imposing a ban on imports from Israeli settlements, which according to British policy are all in occupied Palestinian territory.
LFI is a group within the Labour Party which is believed to count more than 70 MPs as affiliates, although it no longer keeps a public list.
The group published a policy briefing report late last week titled “Settlements and Solutions: A Guide to the Issues”.
The report, reviewed by Middle East Eye, argues against a ban on Israeli settlement goods.
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All Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including the major blocs, are illegal under international law. The International Court of Justice also ruled in a 2024 advisory opinion that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is itself illegal and places obligations on countries to take measures to end the occupation.
But LFI’s report says: “While Israel asserts that settlements are legal under international law, much of the international community disputes this position.”
It criticises settlement outposts not recognised by the Israeli government which are “established without legal authorisation”, and advocates for adopting a different approach to major blocs from other settlements, tolerating the former but opposing the latter.
The report calls on Britain to urge “the next Israeli government to remove illegal settlement outposts; halt settlement expansion outside the major blocs; issue more building permits for Palestinians in Area C; and expand Palestinian autonomous areas”.
This suggests the government should not object to the major settlement blocs.
The report argues that “a boycott of all trade with settlements is practically and politically impossible”.
It says a full boycott would “impact all Israeli businesses operating in the settlement blocs, as well as East Jerusalem and the Old City”.
The report adds that a boycott could inadvertently affect “Israelis living within the state’s borders. A settlement boycott would thus become a de facto boycott of all of Israel.
“This will rightly be perceived within the UK Jewish community as a further example of the government singling out and targeting Israel for punitive action and harsh rhetoric.”
Burnham mulling ban on settlement goods
Prime Minister Burnham recently said he is considering “further measures to deter unacceptable violence” in the occupied West Bank, and Whitehall sources have said that his government is considering announcing a ban on settlement goods after parliament returns from recess.
Wes Streeting, now Burnham’s defence secretary, last year said in leaked text messages to the now-disgraced former ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, that he had been a supporter of LFI for “over 20 years”.
But he endorsed sanctions on Israel and accused the country of “committing war crimes before our eyes”.
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Jonathan Reynolds, the business and trade secretary, was previously a vice-chair of LFI.
In opposition, Labour called for a ban on the import of settlement goods, with the then shadow foreign secretary, Lisa Nandy, saying in June 2020 that the move would require “courage that so far ministers have not been willing to show”.
France and Sweden recently put forward a proposal calling on the European Union to enforce strict import controls on settlement goods.
The Netherlands also banned trade in such goods last month.
Polling of Labour members earlier this year showed that a staggering 87 percent support a ban on trade with Israeli settlements, with only 6 percent opposing it.
The LFI report criticises the “current Netanyahu government, which took office in January 2023, [for having] accelerated expansion of settlements beyond the ‘settlement blocs’, while also failing to uphold the law and crack down on the noxious activities of extremist settlers”.
It adds that there “is a long-standing consensus – previously accepted by Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams alike, as well as influential segments of the international community – that the key settlement blocs will remain under Israeli control through land swaps”.
