World News
Former British and French diplomats urge arms and trade sanctions against Israel
A joint letter signed by more than 100 former envoys accuses Israel of ethnic cleansing and calls on the UK and France to take concrete measures to protect a two-state solution.
The short version
- More than 100 former British and French diplomats signed an unprecedented joint letter urging French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Andy Burnham to impose trade and arms bans on Israel.
- The letter accuses Israel of ethnic cleansing, the destruction of Gaza, and erasing Palestine through settlement expansion and military actions in the West Bank and Gaza.
- The signatories urged the UK and France to enforce international court rulings, suspend bilateral trade and arms transfers, ban settlement trade, and penalize citizens purchasing property in occupied Palestinian territories.
- The appeal follows official UK and French condemnations of Israel's E1 settlement tenders, which Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar defended as a fundamental right of Jewish people.
Key facts
- A total of 52 former French diplomats and 50 former British ambassadors sent a joint letter to Emmanuel Macron and Andy Burnham calling for policy actions against Israel.[The Guardian]
- The former diplomats outlined seven policy demands, including suspending arms transfers, halting trade and partnership agreements, banning trade with settlements, and removing charitable status from groups funding settlements.[The Guardian]
- The letter was published two days after the UK, France, and nine other nations issued a joint statement condemning Israeli government construction tenders for 1,200 homes in the E1 settlement project.[The Guardian]
- UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband summoned senior Israeli diplomat Daniela Grudsky Ekstein over the E1 tenders, while Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar asserted Israel's right to build in the area.[The Guardian]
What remains uncertain
- It remains uncertain whether the British or French governments will adopt any of the punitive measures recommended in the letter.[The Guardian]