UK blacklists ‘extremist’ Israeli settler outposts

London has urged West Jerusalem to combat violence against Palestinians in the West Bank

The UK has imposed sanctions on several Israeli settler outposts and organizations in the West Bank, calling on the Jewish state to crack down on violence against Palestinian residents. 

Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law as they are seen as obstacles to the formation of an independent Palestinian state. However, many Jews choose to build communities there for religious reasons, and argue they are living on ancient Israeli land known as Judea and Samaria. The violent clashes between settlers and local Palestinians have been widely documented by human rights groups. 

In a statement on Tuesday, the UK Foreign Office said that it has blacklisted three outposts, which have been supporting “extremists” settlers and are involved in “activity that amounts to a serious abuse of the right of Palestinians not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

Four settler organizations were also targeted, including Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva, which the UK government described as “a religious school embedded in the Yitzhar settlement known to promote violence against non-Jewish people.” 

“When I went to the West Bank earlier this year, on one of my first trips as foreign secretary, I met with Palestinians whose communities have suffered horrific violence at the hands of Israeli settlers,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy said, announcing the restrictions. 

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“The inaction of the Israeli government has allowed an environment of impunity to flourish where settler violence has been allowed to increase unchecked. Settlers have shockingly even targeted schools and families with young children,” he added. 

Lammy urged Israel to “crack down on settler violence and stop settler expansion on Palestinian land.”

More than 1,400 “incidents of settler violence” have been recorded since the war between Israel and Hamas broke out in October 2023, the Foreign Office said, citing UN figures. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defied international pressure by pledging in recent years to expand the settlements. Last year, his government passed a resolution drastically simplifying the process of approving construction plans. The decision was widely praised by settler leaders, who argued that Israelis living in the West Bank should not be treated as “second-class citizens.”