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Israeli Opposition Slams Netanyahu Over UK Settlement Import Ban
(MENAFN) Israeli opposition figures Gilad Kariv and Yair Lapid turned on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government Tuesday, accusing it of diplomatic failure and putting political survival ahead of Israel's actual interests in its handling of Britain's new ban on settlement imports.
Kariv, a lawmaker with the Democrats party, took aim at retaliatory steps announced by Foreign Minister Gideon Saar against the UK.
"Saar's retaliatory measures are childish and populist, and serve a political campaign rather than the real needs of the State of Israel," Kariv wrote on X.
He accused Saar of losing control over Israeli foreign policy and bending to the nationalist, hardline agenda pushed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Rather than working to rein in the government's conduct in the Palestinian territories, Kariv said, Saar had gone along with it — a move he framed as an attempt to secure a spot on Likud's electoral list. Kariv also pointed to the monthslong absence of an Israeli ambassador in London as further proof of what he called the government's negligence and lack of professionalism.
Saar's retaliatory package includes shutting down the British Consulate in East Jerusalem, expelling British representatives from the International Gaza Support Center in Kiryat Gat, ending British-run training programs for Palestinian Authority forces in the West Bank, and barring entry to 12 British elected officials and citizens.
Lapid called Britain's decision a "grave mistake" — but placed the blame squarely on Netanyahu's government for allowing it to happen.
"The responsibility lies with another enormous diplomatic failure of the Netanyahu government," he said on X.
"This government is leading us into unprecedented diplomatic isolation, and does nothing but issue threats that no one takes seriously," he added.
According to Lapid, the government's job was to head off such decisions before they were made, not scramble to respond after the fact. "They do not know how to handle foreign relations," he said.
In a separate statement, Lapid argued that Britain's boycott-and-sanctions approach is both mistaken and dangerous, warning it risks emboldening extremist voices in Israel ahead of the Oct. 27 Knesset elections. He further claimed the British decision is being shaped by domestic political pressures within the UK itself, and cautioned it would end up strengthening Hamas and similar groups.
The controversy erupted after British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told the House of Commons earlier Tuesday that the UK will bar imports originating from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Miliband stressed the measures are aimed at the settlements and their expansion — not at Israel as a whole.
He also unveiled sanctions targeting companies and individuals involved in construction, infrastructure, financing and real estate work that enables settlement expansion, along with new sanctions against extremist Israeli occupiers accused of inciting or supporting violence against Palestinians. Britain will reject arms export license applications for items that materially support the occupation, Miliband said, while keeping in place the existing suspension of 30 arms export licenses.
Miliband stated that the British government agrees Israeli "settler terrorists" are carrying out what amounts to "ethnic cleansing of Palestinians" in the occupied West Bank.
Escalating settlement activity
Israel's opposition has long accused Netanyahu of pushing the country toward global isolation through his government's policies and the war in Gaza — an assessment Netanyahu himself echoed roughly a year ago when he acknowledged Israel was entering a period of isolation.
Since Netanyahu's government took office in late 2022, it has greenlit 104 new illegal settlements, while 160 agricultural outposts have sprung up across the West Bank, Palestinian data shows.
In the first half of 2026 alone, Israeli occupiers launched 3,488 attacks in the occupied West Bank, killing 17 Palestinians and displacing — fully or partially — 26 Bedouin and pastoral communities, according to the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, which also recorded the creation of 42 new illegal outposts.
An estimated 750,000 Israeli occupiers now live across 194 illegal settlements and 400 illegal outposts throughout the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Palestinian figures indicate.
Israel has controlled the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967. The international community regards Israeli settlements there as illegal under international law — a characterization Israel disputes.
Kariv, a lawmaker with the Democrats party, took aim at retaliatory steps announced by Foreign Minister Gideon Saar against the UK.
"Saar's retaliatory measures are childish and populist, and serve a political campaign rather than the real needs of the State of Israel," Kariv wrote on X.
He accused Saar of losing control over Israeli foreign policy and bending to the nationalist, hardline agenda pushed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Rather than working to rein in the government's conduct in the Palestinian territories, Kariv said, Saar had gone along with it — a move he framed as an attempt to secure a spot on Likud's electoral list. Kariv also pointed to the monthslong absence of an Israeli ambassador in London as further proof of what he called the government's negligence and lack of professionalism.
Saar's retaliatory package includes shutting down the British Consulate in East Jerusalem, expelling British representatives from the International Gaza Support Center in Kiryat Gat, ending British-run training programs for Palestinian Authority forces in the West Bank, and barring entry to 12 British elected officials and citizens.
Lapid called Britain's decision a "grave mistake" — but placed the blame squarely on Netanyahu's government for allowing it to happen.
"The responsibility lies with another enormous diplomatic failure of the Netanyahu government," he said on X.
"This government is leading us into unprecedented diplomatic isolation, and does nothing but issue threats that no one takes seriously," he added.
According to Lapid, the government's job was to head off such decisions before they were made, not scramble to respond after the fact. "They do not know how to handle foreign relations," he said.
In a separate statement, Lapid argued that Britain's boycott-and-sanctions approach is both mistaken and dangerous, warning it risks emboldening extremist voices in Israel ahead of the Oct. 27 Knesset elections. He further claimed the British decision is being shaped by domestic political pressures within the UK itself, and cautioned it would end up strengthening Hamas and similar groups.
The controversy erupted after British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told the House of Commons earlier Tuesday that the UK will bar imports originating from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Miliband stressed the measures are aimed at the settlements and their expansion — not at Israel as a whole.
He also unveiled sanctions targeting companies and individuals involved in construction, infrastructure, financing and real estate work that enables settlement expansion, along with new sanctions against extremist Israeli occupiers accused of inciting or supporting violence against Palestinians. Britain will reject arms export license applications for items that materially support the occupation, Miliband said, while keeping in place the existing suspension of 30 arms export licenses.
Miliband stated that the British government agrees Israeli "settler terrorists" are carrying out what amounts to "ethnic cleansing of Palestinians" in the occupied West Bank.
Escalating settlement activity
Israel's opposition has long accused Netanyahu of pushing the country toward global isolation through his government's policies and the war in Gaza — an assessment Netanyahu himself echoed roughly a year ago when he acknowledged Israel was entering a period of isolation.
Since Netanyahu's government took office in late 2022, it has greenlit 104 new illegal settlements, while 160 agricultural outposts have sprung up across the West Bank, Palestinian data shows.
In the first half of 2026 alone, Israeli occupiers launched 3,488 attacks in the occupied West Bank, killing 17 Palestinians and displacing — fully or partially — 26 Bedouin and pastoral communities, according to the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, which also recorded the creation of 42 new illegal outposts.
An estimated 750,000 Israeli occupiers now live across 194 illegal settlements and 400 illegal outposts throughout the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Palestinian figures indicate.
Israel has controlled the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 1967. The international community regards Israeli settlements there as illegal under international law — a characterization Israel disputes.
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