(JTA) —

The United Kingdom, France and Canada will ban goods produced in the West Bank settlements and Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told Parliament on Tuesday, explaining that all such communities were deemed by his country to be illegal.

The declaration exacerbated the rising tensions riling the traditionally strong Israel-U.K. alliance. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar warned that these steps stoked antisemitism against British Jews in an on-camera statement to reporters in Jerusalem.

Sa’ar charged that the measures were a politicized hostile action deliberately taken ahead of Friday’s Jewish New Year holiday, with an eye toward influencing the country’s Oct. 27 elections.

Israel, he said, is responding by closing the British Consulate in Jerusalem that services Palestinians. It will also remove British representatives from the International Gaza Support Center in Kiryat Gat and halt the British training of Palestinian Authority security forces. He added that Israel would bar the entry of 12 British politicians and other nationals involved in anti-Israel activity.

France and Canada have also announced a ban on the import of settlement goods, Miliband told parliament. He noted that the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain and Norway have either banned goods or in the process of doing so.

In the same address, Miliband affirmed Israel’s right to exist, reflected on his own Jewish roots and rejected the notion that there was a connection between the policy steps against West Bank settlement activity and the safety of British Jews.

What is motivating the U.K., Miliband said, is “a deep sense of shame about what has unfolded in Palestine under the eyes of the international community” as well as Israel’s “clear intent to bury the Palestinian state.”

In response, he said, the U.K. “will introduce an import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied [Palestinian] territory” as part of a “new comprehensive sanctions regime” that will be put in place within nine months.

This will include, he said, “action against specific companies and individuals who provide services, such as construction, infrastructure, financing or real estate for settlement expansion.”

To those who “finance or facilitate illegal settlements, let me say this, you will face the full force of U.K. sanctions,” Miliband warned.

Miliband clarified that the ban would not affect the export of religious items or life-saving Israeli medications. He explained that trade with the settlements was minimal and that the greater impact would be the sanctions on services.

As part of declaring the ban, Miliband said that the British government is also adopting the International Court of Justice’s 2024 advisory opinion that all Israeli settlement activity over the pre-1967 border was illegal.

But others in Parliament pushed back against Miliband’s declaration. MP Richard Tice of Britain’s right-wing Reform party said that the sanctions were a grave mistake that would “embolden the scourge of antisemitism against British Jews on British streets,” endanger ties with the United States and lead to “tit for tat” sanctions from Israel.

Miliband shot back that “no British Jew is responsible for the policies of the Israeli government and it behooves all of us to make sure that there can be no confusion about that,” saying that Tice’s statement “fell foul” of that goal.

The U.K. action is the latest escalation in tensions between Israel and the Labour-led British government headed by Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who took power in July.

The prior government, led by former Labour Premier Keir Starmer, had already angered Israel by recognizing Palestinian statehood in 2025, suspending licenses for the export of arms to Israel and freezing talks toward a free-trade agreement.

France and Canada are also announcing a ban on the import of settlement goods, Miliband told parliament. He explained that the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain, and Norway have either banned goods or in the process of doing so.

In concert with Miliband’s appearance at Parliament, Britain and 11 other countries issued a joint statement pledging “their intention to introduce national and/or support European restrictions on trade in goods with settlements which are illegal under international law.”

Those other countries were Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

The 12-country bloc said it was taking this step to maintain the viability of the two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, describing the situation in the West Bank as “rapidly deteriorating.”

In its statement, the bloc stressed that it was taking this step amid an “unprecedented level of settler violence and settlement expansion, including the unacceptable decision to publish tenders for the E1 settlement project.” That project is seen as cutting through land that would render a Palestinian state unviable.

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(JTA) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a 2028 presidential hopeful, ventured farther than ever in his criticisms of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a weekend interview that delved into the Democratic Party’s relationship with Israel.

“I think it’s overwhelmingly opposed to the current regime in Israel,” Newsom said of the party, in a PBS News Hour interview with Amna Nawaz.

Pressed by Nawaz on divisions among his colleagues on Israel, Newsom denied that the subject is “even controversial anymore,” stressing that “the condemnation of what Bibi Netnayahu’s doing is almost universal.” The governor slammed the Israeli military’s conduct in Gaza and condemned the settler violence that has expanded in the West Bank.

“We want a democratic and secure Israel, and we want a secure and democratic Palestinian state as well right next door,” Newsom said, adding that Netanyahu has proved counterproductive to achieving a two-state solution.

Though he repeatedly maintained that Democrats are not divided on Israel, the governor acknowledged that “some of the language” by fellow Democrats  “has been weaponized.” Certain “aspects of rhetoric” from individual candidates, he added, are on “the spectrum of concern,” Newsom said.

A number of candidates from the party’s far left place  most if not all of the blame on Israel for a war in Gaza that has resulted in tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths. and downplay the role of Hamas in launching the war with the Oct. 7, 2023 raid inside Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were abducted. Newsom’s rhetoric is of a piece with party moderates who are critical of the Israeli government but who call for a secure Israel, reject Hamas and who resist pressure from the left to call Israel’s actions “genocide.”

Newsom nonetheless insisted that the party is unified on the issue. “But I think universally, everyone agrees, even if you don’t think it’s genocide, that it’s been a moral catastrophe,” he said of the war in Gaza. “The vast majority of us also agree about the atrocities on Oct. 7th and how horrific and unacceptable it was, and the terrorism that was perpetrated by Hamas.”

Newsom was among the many U.S. politicians to visit Israel in October 2023, meeting with survivors and families impacted by the attacks.

During a March book tour, Newsom sparked a backlash when he said that some people were referring to Israel “appropriately as sort of an apartheid state.” He quickly walked back these remarks, telling Politico that he had used the term “in the context of the direction that Bibi is going.”

“I revere the state of Israel,” he declared at the time.

The governor warned, however, that if Netanyahu proceeds in the direction of West Bank annexation, apartheid could become “a word you may hear others use.”

In addition to amplifying his condemnation of Netanyahu this weekend, Newsom also addressed the fact that fewer Democrats are accepting funds from political action committees affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying group.

As for Newsom himself, Track AIPAC, an organization that compiles Federal Election Commission data to flag pro-Israel campaign contributions, did not log any such donations to the likely presidential candidate. But the group did flag him as “pro-Israel.”

“It’s a minority of Democrats that are accepting AIPAC,” the governor said, noting a “dramatic change” over the last couple years.

“The vast majority of Democrats I talk to, even Democrats in the past that have in the past have taken AIPAC money, are pledging not to now,” Newsom added. “That’s more of a mainstream position, interestingly, within the Democratic Party.”

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(JTA) — ANN ARBOR – Liberal Michigan rabbis and other Jewish leaders are calling on the Democratic Party to agree to a list of “nonnegotiable” principles about Jewish safety and Israel as the party’s U.S. Senate candidate in the state, Abdul El-Sayed, seeks to make inroads with Jewish voters.

The campaign, backed by a progressive Zionist group, comes as a different subset of Michigan Jewish leaders are urging their community to reject El-Sayed outright and instead vote for his Republican opponent, former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers.

“I think he has the potential to be an amazing, visionary leader in the state of Michigan and in this country,” Rabbi Josh Whinston, who heads the Reform Temple Beth Emeth in Ann Arbor and has met privately with El-Sayed, said Monday about the Democratic candidate during a press conference. “But his vision needs to be more inclusive.”

Whinston was one of more than a dozen Jewish clergy who signed “Nonnegotiable Michigan,” the open letter. It does not directly address El-Sayed by name but outlines five principles its signers say “leaders who want our votes” must demonstrate.

The letter lists five “nonnegotiables”:

• “Jewish safety — including for Zionist Jews — in Michigan and across America”;

• “Our right to define our own Jewish identities”;

• “Jewish sovereignty in Israel”;

• “Welcoming our full participation in American political life”; and

• “An affirmative vision for a better future in the Middle East.”

The “Nonegotiable” campaign is backed by Zioness Action Fund, a registered 501(c)4 associated with the advocacy group Zioness, which bills itself as “Unabashedly progressive. Unapologetically Zionist.” Past Zioness actions have put pressure on progressive spaces to become more welcoming of Zionism as the progressive movement has sharply turned against Israel.

The initial signatories number 16, most of whom are Reform and Conservative rabbis and cantors serving congregations in the state. The initiative was spearheaded by Whinston and Rabbi Aaron Starr, of the Conservative Congregation Shaarey Zedek in Southfield, a Detroit suburb. Starr is also president of the Michigan Board of Rabbis.

“We realized we were all having this same experience of our members coming to us and saying, ‘Rabbi, what should I do?’” Starr told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about the letter’s origins.

At the press conference, Starr compared the relationship between Jews and political parties to a marriage. “I would advise against a couple getting married if they can’t ensure each other’s safety and can’t honor each other’s identity,” he said.

It remains relatively rare for Jewish spiritual leaders to directly involve themselves in electoral politics, though a large coalition of thousands of rabbis signed onto a letter opposing “rising anti-Zionism” shortly before the election last year of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a harsh critic of Israel.

The latest letter comes as Michigan’s Jewish community of around 100,000 has been put in the national spotlight in a crucial election for deciding control of the Senate. In late August, El-Sayed, a strident Israel critic who has questioned its future as a Jewish state, apologized to Jewish Democrats for his past comments about the Temple Israel attack in West Bloomfield Township earlier this year. El-Sayed had said of the attacker, who lost family in an Israeli strike in Lebanon, “Hurt people hurt people,” triggering backlash from the Jewish community.

The candidate has also been meeting with Jewish voters and leaders, and recently told JTA that “safety” is the top concern he hears from them. His campaign intends to hire a Jewish liaison, sources have told JTA.

El-Sayed has not budged on other issues of concern to Jewish voters, including his reticence to back a two-state solution that would specifically recognize Jewish sovereignty — though he has said he would be open to the possibility if Israelis and Palestinians jointly agreed on it.

The petition’s leaders told JTA their letter had been in the works since before El-Sayed’s apology, and said he needs to do more. “It took on another level of meaning after his quote-unquote ‘apology,’ which was really only a partial apology,” Starr said.

Following one of El-Sayed’s apologies, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, who is Jewish, urged the same room of Jewish Democrats ”to place the needs of the world above even our own self-interest and, yes, even our own survival.” Invoking Queen Esther and “Jewish values,” Nessel’s remarks have since been criticized by Jews across the spectrum and spurred renewed debate over the role of Jewish interests in the broader political conversation.

In contrast to Nessel, and to the rival letter urging a Rogers vote, the “Nonnegotiable” campaign does not endorse a candidate. Instead it argues that Democratic leaders should make clear to Jews that they agree with what the letter defines as central Jewish concerns.

“Every constituency must occasionally remind its party that support is earned, not owed,” the letter states. “This is a good faith effort to make our needs unmistakably clear, and to invite any candidate seeking public office — now or in the future — to engage, listen, learn, and grow.”

Spokespeople for the El-Sayed campaign and for the Michigan Democratic Party did not immediately return JTA requests for comment.

Starr said the values articulated in the letter go beyond El-Sayed: Jews, he told JTA, also have “an eye to 2028.”

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