UK accuses Israel of backing ethnic cleansing by “terrorist” settlers in West Bank | BBC News

By BBC News

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The UK government has launched a scathing attack on Israel’s actions in the West Bank and Gaza. The Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said ‘terrorists’ were carrying out ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, which is illegally occupied by Israel, and said they were doing so with the backing of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Mr Miliband announced sanctions on trade with settlements and declared that UK policy was now officially that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank was unlawful. The UK announcements are the most direct condemnation of Israeli policy since it was founded as a state, and follows a summer of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities in the occupied territories. The UK joins 12 other countries that have announced sanctions against goods from the settlements, including France and Canada. It comes as Israel is implementing another major expansion of settlements, with the construction of E1, a new development of 1,200 homes that will cut off Palestinia

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