UK Foreign Secretary hails tougher stance on Israel and 'settler terrorists'

UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband on Monday declared a new willingness by the British government to go further in confronting Israel over its approach to Palestine.

The Labour leadership is attempting to address grass roots concerns over the party's stance on the war in Gaza, as well as acting on settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

Mr Miliband is using his family history to push a more robust stance that promises to build on sanctions on exports from settlements announced earlier this month.

“What the [Benjamin] Netanyahu government is doing in Gaza is a stain on the conscience of the world, and there is increasing evidence war crimes appear to have been committed,” he told delegates at the Labour Party annual conference in Liverpool.

“There is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank perpetrated by settler terrorists. And too often the Israeli government has turned a blind eye to this. And worse, members of it have made statements and taken actions to support the forced displacement of Palestinians.”

Mr Miliband said the new Labour leadership had listened to pressure for change, recalling that Prime Minister Andy Burnham had said the policy of his predecessor Keir Starmer had been wrong since taking office in 2024.

“I want to say to the millions of people in this country and indeed elsewhere who have been moved and outraged by the plight of the Palestinian people: we hear you,” he said. “You were right. And under Andy’s leadership we have reset our approach.”

Efforts on the Israeli side to “destroy the two-state solution” would not succeed, he added. Mr Miliband's parents' history as Jewish refugees during the Second World War pointed to a “survivor’s responsibility” to “not to be a bystander to injustice”.

The Foreign Office ministerial team used appearances at the conference to set a new tone, especially on the Middle East.

Stephen Doughty, the Middle East minister, said the team was placing ethics, values and international law at the heart of their approach as they embraced the new direction.

“I think there's a very natural progression here,” Mr Doughty told an event organised by the CAABU pressure group. “If you have facts on the ground, if you have a set of values, if you take a legal position, then that leads to actions.

“Some of the situations we deal with are incredibly complex and incredibly difficult. We're here as a government to get things done. We're not here just to simply speak.”

Kirsty McNeill, the development minister, used her appearance at an event for mine clearance groups Halo and Mine Action Group to say those addressing atrocities in the world had “friends” in the ministerial team. “Values are back,” she said. “Together we are going to do extraordinary things to stop the slide into hell.”

Richard Burgon, a back bench Labour veteran, told pro-Palestinian activists that their campaigns in the streets and among the rank and file had contributed to Mr Starmer's downfall.

“If it weren't for you, Keir Starmer, would still be prime minister, after he said that Israel has the right to to withhold water, electricity, and food [from Gazans],” Mr Burgon said. “If it weren't for you, the British government wouldn't have recognised the state of Palestine.

“If it weren't for you, the Foreign Secretary wouldn't have announced sanctions on Israel for its illegal settlements.

“Now, of course, we need to go further.”