AMMAN — Israel on Wednesday ordered the British consulate in East Jerusalem to close within 30 days, escalating a diplomatic confrontation with London over British sanctions on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

 

The move came a day after Britain led Western sanctions over violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

 

London announced a ban on imports from Israeli settlements in the West Bank and imposed measures targeting companies and individuals involved in settlement expansion.

 

France and Canada announced similar restrictions. Nine other countries, including Denmark, Spain, Sweden and Portugal, backed or said they were considering further measures against settlement trade.

 

Israel has widened its response beyond the consulate. Foreign minister Gideon Saar said Britain would no longer participate in the US-led Gaza coordination mission. British training programmes for Palestinian Authority security forces will also be terminated.

 

Israel has additionally banned 12 British nationals from entering the country. Far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for the expulsion of the British ambassador.

 

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said the move marked the "beginning of a new approach" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which "not only calls out injustice and suffering but acts".

 

In a statement to MPs, Miliband said: "The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists.

 

The dispute has exposed differences among Western governments over how to respond to settlement expansion and violence in the West Bank.

 

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on X that “France is going to put an end ⁠to its commerce with Israeli settlements in Palestine, along with 11 other countries which have also undertaken similar engagements.”

 

“Why are we doing this?” Barrot said, adding, “Because the West Bank is close to exploding – ⁠there is frenzied expansion of the settlements, a flare up of violence against Palestinians by extremist settlers, and acts of terror which have been attacked by Israeli authorities themselves.”

 

“This harmful situation severely infringes the dignity of the Palestinian people. It undermines the security of Israel, to which France is staunchly committed. It jeopardizes the two-state solution, the only alternative to a permanent state of war.”

 

Washington has declined to join the sanctions. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the United States did not want to see anything that could further destabilise the West Bank.

 

Rubio said Washington “obviously” will not be joining the UK and 11 other Western countries in barring trade with West Bank settlements.

 

“Obviously, we’re not going to do what the UK did. We saw their announcement today, but I don’t have any comment on it right now,” Rubio told reporters in Miami.

 

The diplomatic escalation comes amid continued Israeli military activity in the occupied territory.

 

Israeli forces withdrew from Anata and Shuafat refugee camp northeast of Jerusalem after an operation lasting about 24 hours. Roads and entrances were closed, while homes and businesses were raided.

 

Palestinian sources said that around 100 people were detained or arrested during the operation.

 

Jordan has welcomed the British measures.

 

The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday welcomed Britain’s decision to ban trade in products from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, calling it an “important step consistent with international law and efforts to preserve the two-state solution.”

 

The ministry also welcomed a joint statement by 12 countries, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, expressing their intention to take national measures and support European measures restricting trade in products from Israeli settlements, which are considered illegal under international law.

 

It called on the international community to take similar practical measures to uphold international law and relevant UN resolutions, halt settlement activity and protect the rights of the Palestinian people.

 

The ministry’s statement reiterated Jordan’s support for Palestinian freedom and called for an end to the Israeli occupation. It also called for the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

 

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Israel must face “real consequences” for policies that violate international law and undermine the two-state solution.

 

Safadi welcomed measures announced by the British government against “illegal Israeli actions and policies that entrench the occupation, undermine the two-state solution and perpetuate injustice.”

 

In a post on X, Safadi thanked the British government for “standing on the side of justice.”

 

He also thanked Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden for announcing their intention to take similar measures and for reaffirming their support for a two-state solution.

 

Safadi also welcomed measures already taken by Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium and other countries.

 

“Settlement expansion, settler terrorism, land confiscation, the inhumane treatment of Palestinians and the strangulation of the Palestinian economy will not bring peace and security,” Safadi said.

 

He also condemned violations of the historical and legal status quo governing Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.

 

Safadi said there was only one path to achieving a just and lasting peace that guarantees security for all: “ending the illegal occupation of Palestine and implementing the two-state solution.”

 

He said systematic violations of international law and actions that undermine prospects for peace could not be allowed to continue, and called on the international community to take effective measures to prevent the Israeli government from further undermining the two-state solution and the right of all peoples in the region to live in security and peace.

 

Political analyst Amer Sabaileh said Israel’s current approach suggests it is increasingly unwilling to respond to external pressure.

 

“Israelis today are not concerned about any external pressure. They believe they must do what they are doing and change the facts on the ground first, and then the issue of international relations can be addressed,” Sabaileh said.

 

He said Israel’s disputes could increasingly be concentrated with left-wing governments, which themselves face pressure from right-wing parties. He also pointed to security cooperation and Israel’s defence and cyber industries as important factors that could continue to shape its relations with other countries.

 

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Settlement expansion

 

According to the Washington, DC-based Middle East Institute, the term “settlements” refers to Jewish communities that Israel has established beyond the 1949 armistice lines, or so-called “Green Line,” in territory that the Israeli militarily occupied in the course of the 1967 war.

 

The United Nations General Assembly, the International Criminal Court, and the International Committee of the Red Cross, among other organisations, have declared that by establishing settlements in the land it occupied after the 1967 war, Israel violates Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

 

Article 49 says that an occupying power cannot deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into territory it occupies.

 

Various international bodies have also interpreted the expansion of settlements as breaching the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and Article 55 of the 1907 Hague Regulations, both of which prohibit the unlawful appropriation or use of property by an occupying power.

 

In 2016, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2334 with 14 votes in favour and the US abstaining. The resolution condemns and calls for a freeze on settlement construction and expansion and expresses “grave concern” that settlement and outpost construction in the West Bank precludes a two-state solution along 1967 borders.

 

As occupied land, international law prohibits Israel from settling it. Despite that, the number of Israelis living there has grown over the years. Israel has built about 160 settlements housing 700,000 Jews since 1967.

 

In August, Israel opened tenders for the construction of 1,234 Israeli units in the occupied West Bank, with right rights groups saying the scheme will sever Palestinian territory in two.

 

The “E1” area on a stretch of Palestinian land will ultimately create a continuous Israeli settlement “corridor” between occupied East Jerusalem and the large settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, 7km east of Jerusalem.

 

According to a UN report in December 2025, the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank is at its highest level since at least 2017, when the United Nations began tracking such data.

 

The report, seen by AFP at the time, "plans for nearly 47,390 housing units were advanced, approved, or tendered, compared with some 26,170 in 2024.”

 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the "relentless" expansion, saying it "continues to fuel tensions, impede access by Palestinians to their land and threaten the viability of a fully independent, democratic, contiguous and sovereign Palestinian State."

 

"These figures represent a sharp increase compared to previous years," he added, noting an average of 12,815 settler units were added annually between 2017 and 2022.

 

Excluding east Jerusalem, which was occupied and annexed by Israel in 1967, some 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, along with about three million Palestinian residents.

 

"These developments are further entrenching the unlawful Israeli occupation and violating international law and undermining the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination," Gutteres said.

 

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Settler violence

 

A recent UN Human Rights Office report said that Israel has accelerated unlawful settlement expansion and annexation of large parts of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, forcibly displacing over 36,000 Palestinians amid increasing violence by Israeli security forces and settlers.

 

The report, which covers the 12-month period up to 31 October 2025, documents 1,732 incidents of settler violence resulting in casualties or property damage, compared to 1,400 in the previous reporting period.

 

This includes relentless harassment, intimidation, and destruction of homes and farmland, according to the report.

 

“Settler violence continued in a coordinated, strategic and largely unchallenged manner, with Israeli authorities playing the central role in directing, participating in or enabling this conduct,” the report said.

 

“Longstanding and pervasive impunity is “facilitating and encouraging violence against and harassment of Palestinians”, it added.

 

Last October, around the time of the olive harvest, the report documented 42 settler attacks leading to the injury of 131 Palestinians, including 14 women and a boy, the highest number recorded in a single month since 2006. Daily attacks by armed settlers, soldiers and “settler soldiers”, many of whom have been armed, equipped and trained by State authorities, along with the closure of more land to Palestinian landowners and harvesters made the 2025 season the worst in decades.

 

“The displacement in the occupied West Bank, which coincides with the extensive displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, at the hands of the Israeli military, appears to indicate a concerted Israeli policy of mass forcible transfer throughout the occupied territory, aimed at permanent displacement, raising concerns of ethnic cleansing,” the report said.

 

The report also said that the transfer of power from the Israeli military to civilian authorities, measures to confiscate Palestinian lands for settlement expansion, as well as other discriminatory policies and practices “amounted to an institutionalised regime of systematic discrimination, oppression and violence by Israel against Palestinians”, violating the international law prohibition of racial segregation and apartheid.

 

The report pointed to the advancement or approval by Israeli authorities of 36,973 settler units in in occupied East Jerusalem and around 27,200 in the rest of the West Bank. An unprecedented 84 new outposts were also established during the reporting period.

 

The report also noted the expansion of settlement activity into Area B of the occupied West Bank, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority according to the Oslo agreements.

 

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called on Israel to immediately and completely cease and reverse the establishment and expansion of settlements, for the evacuation all settlers, and an end to the occupation of the Palestinian territory.

 

“Israel must also enable the return of displaced Palestinians, and stop all practices of land confiscation, forced evictions and house demolitions.”