UK sanctions regime on Israeli settlements takes effect

The United Kingdom’s expanded sanctions regime targeting Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank took effect Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, days before bids close on a contested settlement housing tender east of Jerusalem, Arab News and Middle East Eye reported.

The timing matters because bids for the E1 project close Oct. 19, eight days before Israel’s Oct. 27 election. Al Jazeera reported that the latest tender covers 1,234 homes, part of about 3,400 planned for the area.

According to Arab News, the regime gives the government new powers to sanction people and companies that support, facilitate or profit from illegal settlement activity, and it includes provisions on settler violence. Arab News also reported that it bans imports of goods produced in settlements. Middle East Eye reported that advertising of illegal settlements will also be banned in the UK.

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, who announced the package last month, said the changes would allow “swifter action to deter settlement expansion,” Arab News reported. Middle East Eye quoted him as saying: “You will face the full force of UK sanctions.” The sources reviewed did not name anyone newly designated under the regime.

Israel has reacted angrily to the British position. Both outlets reported that it downgraded the UK consulate in Jerusalem to a mission, forcing Britain to withdraw diplomats. The outlets gave slightly different numbers, so the figure is not repeated here.

Separately, China’s foreign ministry said Friday that Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Israeli President Isaac Herzog that Israel should stop and reverse its “forced establishment” of West Bank settlements, Reuters reported. Wang also said the Palestinian question is the “greatest historical injustice of this century,” according to the ministry. The two met in Azerbaijan. The Reuters report included no Israeli response.

E1 covers about 12 square kilometres of land next to the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, about seven kilometres east of Jerusalem, Al Jazeera reported. About 3,700 Palestinians, mostly Bedouin, live in 18 communities in the area. Critics say the project would split the West Bank in two. The Israeli government has long argued settlements are legitimate, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in 2025 that approving the plans “buries the idea of a Palestinian state.”

The Israeli rights group Ir Amim said a petition against the project is still pending before the Jerusalem District Court and that the government did not notify petitioners before opening the tenders, Al Jazeera reported. The UN Human Rights Office has called E1 a “grave and unlawful step to consolidate annexation.”

Canada joined the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Norway in an August joint statement calling the E1 tenders unacceptable and warning companies against bidding, Al Jazeera reported. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said on Sept. 8 that Canada would introduce restrictions on trade in settlement goods “in the coming months,” as reported by Canada News Media. Ottawa had not said which goods would be covered or when the rules take effect, and no start date was found in the reporting reviewed for this story.

For Canadian importers and retailers, the British rules are an early look at how such a ban can work. The Canadian measures remain unspecified.

The next date to watch is Oct. 19, when E1 bids close. Israelis vote on Oct. 27.

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Via Arab News, Middle East Eye, Al Jazeera and Reuters.