Israel targets UK diplomats over West Bank trade ban

READ MORE: RT reports from scene of Israeli settler attempt to force a Palestinian family from their home (VIDEO)

Meanwhile, Israel is pressing ahead with plans for 1,234 new homes in E1, a contested area of the occupied West Bank between Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. The project was specifically cited by the 12 countries in announcing today’s measures.

The Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday rejected a request to freeze the tender while legal challenges are heard, allowing the bidding process to continue. Critics say construction in E1 would disrupt Palestinian territorial continuity and further undermine prospects for a future Palestinian state.

An RT crew has visited Khirbet al-Taban, a small Palestinian herding community in Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank, where Israeli forces demolished all 12 homes, have leaving its 70 residents homeless.

“What happened was the erasure of this village from existence,” local council head Nidal Younis told RT. The community lies within an Israeli-designated military training zone, with the Israeli authorities citing unauthorized construction in carrying out the demolitions.

Asked by RT whether the demolitions amounted to ethnic cleansing, an Israeli peace activist at the scene replied: “Totally. They’re not announcing it, but they do it.”

WATCH the full report below.

Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has called the government’s move a “dark day for British Jews,” warning that it could fuel hostility toward the Jewish community.

Mirvis accused London of ignoring concerns raised by British Jews and said the measures would “succeed only in bolstering the very extremism they seek to target.”

He argued that the sanctions would neither advance peace nor make people safer.

US Republican Congressman Randy Fine has warned that British companies complying with London’s measures could face restrictions in Florida under the state’s anti-boycott law.

The UK is Florida’s top foreign investor, according to the state’s international commerce agency, SelectFlorida, with more than 350 British-owned companies operating at over 600 locations.

“Any company – or nation – that boycotts Israel is boycotted by Florida,” Fine said.

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has warned that Britain could face “repercussions or retaliations” in the US over its measures targeting West Bank settlements.

He cited Florida as an example, saying state law could prevent British businesses complying with the measures from doing business there.

Huckabee also stood by his accusation of “Jew hate” against the British government, saying the measures amounted to “discrimination against the Jewish people.”

The Palestinian presidency has welcomed the UK announcement as an “important step toward confronting the system of Israeli colonial settlement and its violations against the Palestinian people.”

It called for further international action to halt settlement expansion and impose sanctions on those responsible for settler violence.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, however, has backed the British move, calling it “unavoidable” because of what he described as continuing “ethnic cleansing” in the West Bank by “Israeli terrorists.”

Olmert accused some Israeli police and military units of supporting those responsible, while blaming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz for “inaction and indifference.”

“Sanctions are directed against the terrorists not against Israel,” he said.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog has accused Britain of “gross interference” in Israel’s elections, which are due to take place next month.

Herzog called the settlement trade ban a “grave miscalculation” that would fall “on the wrong side of history,” and argued that it would also harm Palestinians by depriving them of business and employment.

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Russia weighs in on Palestinian statehood

Russia has repeatedly raised concerns over settlement expansion and rising violence in the West Bank.

Moscow has described Israeli settlement activity in the territory as unlawful and warned last month that Israel’s “creeping expansion” and escalating settler violence were pushing the West Bank toward a “point of no return.”

Jordan has welcomed the growing international push against Israeli settlements, backing both Britain’s trade measures and the wider 12-country call for restrictions on settlement goods.

The Foreign Ministry called the British move an “essential step” toward upholding international law and urged other countries to take practical measures against settlement expansion. Amman also welcomed London’s condemnation of what it described as “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians in parts of the West Bank.