00:02Britain is taking new action against Israel over its expanding settlements in the West Bank and
00:07Israel is already hitting back. The British government is banning imports from Israeli
00:11settlements there and will also bar British companies from providing services that help
00:16build or expand them. That includes things like financing, construction and real estate.
00:21Britain now also says it considers Israel's occupation of the West Bank illegal,
00:26not just the settlements. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced the shift in Parliament
00:31Tuesday, accusing some Israeli settlers of carrying out what he called ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
00:37We call out what is unlawful. We act on the import of goods from illegal settlements.
00:42We ban advertising of illegal settlements. We act on services to prevent new settlement expansion.
00:47We act on settler violence. We support accountability for what has happened in Gaza.
00:51And we pledge to galvanize the international community to confront the ongoing and
00:55an urgent humanitarian crisis.
00:58France and Canada are taking similar action and several other countries have backed further
01:02restrictions. The British ban is expected to take six to nine months to go into effect.
01:07Israel condemned the move and announced its own response. It plans to close the British consulate
01:13in Jerusalem and bar a dozen British lawmakers and other UK citizens from entering Israel.
01:18The Trump administration is also pushing back. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the US will
01:24not follow Britain's lead. And US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has warned Britain it could face
01:30retaliation from the US. And I guess a big question is, why put this kind of pressure on Israel?
01:37Is the UK also putting the same kind of very strong sanction on North Korea, on China, on Russia?
01:46I don't know why Israel is being singled out for this kind of attention.
01:50Britain says the measures are aimed at Israeli settlements, not a broader boycott of Israel.
01:56And it says the goal is to stop settlement expansion from further undercutting the possibility
02:00of a future Palestinian state.
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