Sa’ar threatens retaliation if UK imposes sanctions on West Bank settlements

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar warned Tuesday that Israel has “tools” with which it “will act against” the United Kingdom if London imposes sanctions on Jerusalem over its E1 settlement project, as a diplomatic spat over the plan ballooned.

The project calls for some 3,00 housing units on strategically key territory in the West Bank, which London sees as vital for a future Palestinian state. Israel’s issuing of tenders last month for the construction of 1,200 units drew condemnation and triggered promises of sanctions from the UK.

“If Britain acts against Israel, Israel will act against Britain,” Sa’ar said in a segment of a Hebrew-language podcast interview with Ynet, aired shortly after the British foreign secretary reiterated that London plans to unveil a “comprehensive” package of measures targeting Israeli settlements in the West Bank in the coming weeks in response to the E1 project.

Asked how concerned he is about the prospect of sanctions, Sa’ar stressed that Israel will respond and charged that any British measures would be politically motivated.

“There is a government there that is systematically acting against Israel. It has already harmed defense exports to us and imposed sanctions on ministers. What guides it is its domestic politics, and at the end of the month the Labour Party conference is convening,” he said.

Pressed on how Israel would respond, Sa’ar declined to elaborate, saying only: “There are tools. I’m saying this clearly and unequivocally. If they act, I think they will be making a major mistake. It will work the opposite way from how they may be dreaming it will work.”

Pressed further, he said: “Why hint at it? What I’ve said is enough. We are preparing. If they make a mistake, there will be a response.”

‘WE WILL ACT’: Britain Threatens New Measures Against Israel Over E1 Construction

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Earlier, Britain’s top diplomat vowed to launch a major reset of policy toward Israel in the coming weeks.

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told lawmakers that the E1 settlement project is “the crossing of a red line” as it would cut across land that the Palestinians seek for a state and “risks making a Palestinian state unviable.”

“This government will not acquiesce in the destruction of the two-state solution,” he said. “We will act and I will set out a comprehensive set of measures in the coming weeks.”

However, he stopped short of announcing a complete trade ban on Israeli settlement goods, which British media has recently reported is being worked on as a response to the E1 development.

Britain and other European nations have criticized Israel’s plans, and Prime Minister Andy Burnham said before taking office that he was “looking at measures to ban trade in goods with illegal settlements.”

The Times reported on Monday that US President Donald Trump’s administration is “closely” tracking any plans to introduce a trade ban.

Miliband also condemned “appalling settler terrorism” in the West Bank following weeks of increasing attacks by Israeli extremists against Palestinian villages in the territory.

Some of the violence by settlers had drawn rare condemnation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and unusually strong criticism from the US ambassador, as well as more typical critics in European capitals.

“We need a comprehensive reset of our policy,” Miliband said Tuesday.

Miliband, son of Jewish refugees to Britain, was speaking in parliament as foreign secretary for the first time since being appointed to the role in mid-July by Burnham.

He said the UK was “looking indeed at our wider economic relationship with the occupied territories” and “we do not want British companies financing, constructing, or advertising new settlements.”

A source with knowledge of the matter told The Times of Israel last week that Sa’ar warned Miliband that Israel would respond to British sanctions with punitive measures of its own.

Those could include the expulsion of British officials from the International Gaza Support Center, as well as more extreme steps, the source said.

The planned E1 expansion would connect the Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim areas, effectively scuttling the prospect of contiguous Palestinian sovereignty between the population centers of Bethlehem, East Jerusalem and Ramallah — long considered the basis of a future Palestinian state.

The project was frozen for years amid fierce opposition from the international community, including past US administrations, which feared that building a new settlement neighborhood on the mostly empty tract of land would rule out the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Supporters of the E1 settlement expansion say they want to block Palestinian statehood. Last month, the government opened bidding for the construction of seven residential compounds with 1,234 housing units in the E1 area, after greenlighting construction of roughly 3,400 units last August.

Miliband called the plan “unacceptable and destructive” in a written statement last month, and said his office was working to prepare a “comprehensive set of measures” in response, including sanctions against “those who participate in illegal settlement expansion.”

Sa’ar hit back at Miliband, calling his statement “patronizing,” and accused the British government of contributing “to a massive wave of antisemitic hatred and attacks against the British Jewish community” and harming the UK-Israeli relationship.