For years, the international response to Israel's settlement project in the occupied West Bank followed a familiar pattern: condemnation, UN resolutions and warnings that continued construction was killing the two-state solution. But in 2026, the pattern changed.
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On September 8, UK foreign secretary Ed Miliband used some of the British government's strongest language yet on Israel's occupation, telling the House of Commons that Palestinians in parts of the West Bank were being driven from their homes and land in what Britain now considers "ethnic cleansing" carried out by "settler terrorists".
The groundshaking statement was not just another diplomatic rebuke, the UK followed it up with import ban on goods from Israeli settlements, sanctions against companies and individuals involved in settlement expansion, and measures against activity contributing materially to the occupation.
