ActionAid UK responds as the UK government announces a ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements.
Hannah Bond and Taahra Ghazi, co-CEOs at ActionAid UK, said: “This is a welcome and significant, if long overdue, first step towards the UK upholding its obligations under international law and ending its complicity in Israel’s unlawful occupation. For far too long, the UK has undermined its own position on Israeli settlements, condemning them as illegal while continuing to permit the trade that normalises and sustains them. We urge the government to ensure the ban includes all services that contribute to the unlawful occupation as well as goods, in order for it to comply with legal obligations, and for it to be implemented as quickly as possible.
“As state-backed settler violence reaches record levels, settlement expansion accelerates and the genocide continues in Gaza, the UK must also take further action to hold the Israeli government accountable for its repeated and systemic violations of international law. That means suspending its trade and partnership agreement with the Israeli government, sanctioning ministers and officials who are directing and funding settlement activity and expansion, and banning all arms sales until widespread and systematic violations of international law are stopped.”
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Spokespeople are available. To request an interview, please contact the press office at uk.media@actionaid.org or on 07753 973 486