Jim Shannon MP says 'one-sided trade restrictions' against Israel by UK risks losing anti-terror intelligence from Israel and relations with US

Both Israel and the US criticised the UK’s stance, which will see a ban on imports from illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and sanctions on individuals and firms providing services to settlers.

Israel announced its own counter measures after Mr Miliband set out the sanctions as part of a reset in the way the Labour Government will deal with Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration.

Mr Miliband said the British Government believed the occupation of the West Bank as a whole was unlawful, going beyond the previous position that only described the settlements themselves as illegal.

And he said there was increasing evidence that Israel had committed war crimes in Gaza.

The reset in the UK’s approach under Andy Burnham has already prompted a backlash from Donald Trump’s White House and Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israel.

One Jewish source told the News Letter that they strongly opposed violence by settlers in the West Bank and hoped that prosecutions would follow. However they added that there is equally much violence against Jews in the West Bank which the western media never reports.

Speaking at the House of Commons after Mr Milliband's statement in the House, Mr Shannon emphasised that Israel remains a "vital democratic ally and an indispensable partner in trade, technology, and intelligence".

The MP, a long standing supporter of the state of Israel, argued that that placing restrictions on it while it faces unprecedented threats from Hamas and other terrorist entities, "sends entirely the wrong signal to international partners and adversaries alike".

“There are numerous considerations which I am not sure the department has fully weighted, such as that the UK relies on a deeply important security and intelligence-sharing partnership with Israeli agencies.

The UK move risks a major diplomatic rift with both Israel and the US, he said.

"The question I would pose to government is how alienating both Israel and the United Kingdom’s closest strategic ally, the United States, could possibly serve the British national interest?

"As a leading global hub for medical, cyber, and agricultural technology, Israel is a foundational trade partner for the UK.”

Meanwhile, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar announced that the UK’s consulate in Jerusalem would be closed as part of a package of retaliatory measures.

He also said Israel would ban 11 MPs and a campaigner involved in what he claimed was “antisemitic and anti-Israel activity” from entry to the country.

The Israeli retaliation came after Mr Miliband told the Commons that a “new approach” was necessary because plans for the E1 development in the West Bank would render a two-state solution “unviable” by “cutting through the heart of Palestine”.

He said more settlements had been approved under the four years of Mr Netanyahu’s government than in the previous 20 years, and settler terrorism in the West Bank was “rampant”.

Stephen Jaffe, spokesman for the NI Friends of Israel said he affirmed the statement from the British Board of Deputies, which represents the Jewish community in the UK.

They said: ”We have warned the UK Government that it should know that protesters who cry ‘From the River to the Sea’ will not be placated by any measures short of the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state.

" At the same time, we have warned the Israeli Government to recognise that intolerable settler violence in the West Bank and provocative measures, not only harm Israel’s international reputation but stand in the way of the peace and security that we all so desperately want.”

East Antrim DUP MP Sammy Wilson warned that the Government’s boycott of Israeli goods from West Bank settlements will harm Palestinians and risk economic retaliation.

Mr Wilson said: “The conduct of some settlers is a legitimate concern, but it does not justify economically punishing Israel, a democratic ally which provides the United Kingdom with vital intelligence.

"This policy is driven by fear of the Labour Party losing votes to the Green Party and critics on the Prime Minister’s backbenches.

“This boycott will not advance peace. It will also punish Palestinians whose jobs and livelihoods depend on economic cooperation with Israel.

"Where does this policy end? To be effective, it would inevitably lead to demands for a wider boycott and economically damaging retaliation.

“Peace will be secured through dialogue and cooperation, not divisive political gestures which damage both Israelis and Palestinians. This will be used as justification to attack jews in the U.K.”