UK sanctions on Israeli settlements unlikely to revive two-state solution, analysts say

September 9, 2026 at 08:43 PM2 min

This digest was compiled by AI from multiple sources — links to the originals are below.

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced UK sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, calling the move overdue and necessary to salvage a two-state solution. Analysts say the measures are modest and unlikely to significantly advance Palestinian statehood, given three decades of settlement expansion.

Key Facts

The UK will sanction illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said on Tuesday.
Eleven nations joined the UK in supporting or considering curbs on trade in goods from settlements.
The number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has grown from about 260,000 in 1993 to more than 700,000, according to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics.
Israel's E1 settlement plan would build thousands of housing units between Maale Adumim and East Jerusalem, splitting the West Bank in two.
Tahani Mustafa of King's College London called the anti-settlement measures modest and unlikely to have a significant impact on Palestinian statehood.

UK Sanctions Announcement

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced on Tuesday that the United Kingdom will sanction illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Miliband described the move as overdue and necessary to salvage a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Eleven nations joined the UK in supporting or considering curbs on trade in goods with settlements that are a barrier to a future Palestinian state.

Settlement Expansion Obstacle

Since the Oslo process began in 1993, the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, has ballooned from about 260,000 to more than 700,000, according to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics. Many Israeli settlements are embedded deep inside West Bank areas that would be needed for a contiguous Palestinian state, including near major Palestinian urban centres such as Nablus, Salfit and Hebron. Israel's recent E1 settlement plan would build thousands of illegal housing units between the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim and East Jerusalem, effectively splitting the West Bank in two and severing it from East Jerusalem.

Analyst Assessment

Tahani Mustafa, a lecturer in international relations at King's College London, told Al Jazeera the latest anti-settlement measures are modest and unlikely to have a significant impact on ambitions for Palestinian statehood. Mustafa said that after three decades of breakneck settlement expansion, Palestinian territory is only being held together by its sinews, and much more decisive action is needed to salvage the two-state solution. Experts have long said Israel will need to dismantle some of its West Bank settlements, as it did in the Gaza Strip in 2005, to make room for a cohesive Palestinian state, while many settlements closer to Israel's pre-war 1967 borders would likely need to be addressed through land swaps.