UK summons Israeli envoy over E1 settlement project as pressure builds for sanctions
A picture taken from the E1 corridor area of the occupied West Bank shows the illegal Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, on 16 June 2020
Oliver Mizzi reports in The New Arab on 20 August 2026:
Israel’s issuing of tenders for the E1 settlement project has triggered one of the UK government’s strongest condemnations of Israeli policy yet, but experts told The New Arab that only concrete political and economic measures could stop the plan from going ahead.
On Wednesday evening, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband issued a forceful statement describing the E1 tenders as “unacceptable and destructive” and warning that the settlement would threaten the survival of a two-state solution.
Miliband said he had spoken directly with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, demanding that Israel halt the settlement plans, withdraw the tender and end settlement expansion. The Israeli chargé d’affaires was also summoned, with the UK demanding the immediate reversal of the tender.
Warning of escalating settler violence and terrorism against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Miliband declared that “Britain will not stand back and accept the destruction of the two-state solution”. “In the coming weeks we will set out a comprehensive set of measures to respond to Israeli government policies, protect the viability of the Palestinian state, target sanctions at those who participate in illegal settlement expansion, and support a just and lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians.”
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Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU), described Miliband’s intervention as “one of the most confident and assertive statements we’ve seen coming from the British government on Israeli conduct”. Doyle told The New Arab that both the language of the statement and the fact that it came directly from the foreign secretary, rather than a junior minister or the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, signalled the seriousness with which London was treating the move.
But he said the real test would be whether Britain was prepared to turn its unusually strong rhetoric into measures capable of changing Israeli policy.