The UK’s ban on trade with Israeli settlements, announced in September 2026 as part of a reset in Middle East policy, is grounded firmly in international law, and has the stated aim of upholding the international commitment to a two-state solution.
This policy paper sets out targeted steps that the UK, with like-minded partners, can now take to safeguard the viability of a sovereign Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.
As well as prohibiting all business with settlements, the British government should end entitlement to visa-free entry to the UK for settlement residents. It should make future trade agreements with Israel conditional on halting settlement expansion, reining in settler violence, releasing tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority, and engaging with the US-led Board of Peace to agree on a withdrawal plan from Gaza – sequenced with verified decommissioning of weapons by Hamas.
In coordination with regional and international partners, the UK should also use its convening power to foster backchannels and Track 2 dialogues between Israelis and Palestinians, with the objective of revising the two-state model to better reflect current realities. The UK should press, too, for free and fair elections to be held across the West Bank and Gaza as soon as conditions allow.
