When UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced a ban on trade with Israeli settlements last week, he took pains to portray the watershed sanctions package as aimed only at those facilitating activity over the Green Line and not Israelis as a whole.
“The sanctions regime will target illegal settlements and settlement expansion, not Israel,” Miliband told Parliament on September 8. “We will continue to support important and valued trade with Green Line Israel precisely because we support the two-state solution, including security and prosperity for Israel.”
However, according to economists and other experts, the planned moves will in reality have the opposite effect, with only muted financial impact for settlements but potentially far-reaching knock-on effects that could chill some of Israel’s most important trade relationships. (Read More)
