An Israeli government spokesman has refused to rule out preventing Ed Miliband from entering Israel, describing the UK foreign secretary as a “failed figure” amid a widening diplomatic dispute between London and Jerusalem.
David Mencer, speaking to GB News, said: “no one here in Israel wants to see Ed Miliband in Israel”.
His comments followed Mr Miliband’s confirmation in the House of Commons that Britain would impose measures restricting trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, further straining relations between the two governments.
Asked why he believed the Labour government was “picking a fight with Israel”, Mr Mencer accused ministers of allowing domestic political considerations to shape foreign policy.
“I think that’s pretty obvious. What they’re doing right now is trying to do British politics and masquerading it as foreign policy.
“Just look at the timing. It’s on the very eve of the Jewish High Holidays, designed to cause maximum upset to Britain’s Jewish community weeks before the Labour Party conference and during an Israeli election campaign.”
Mr Mencer argued that Labour was seeking to position itself against the Greens and the party’s left wing.
“Our position is that these measures are strictly delivered because of Labour’s domestic political pressures, not by any realistic expectation of changing policy on the ground. This is about affecting most probably the electorate of Holborn and St Pancras.
“They know they’re losing ground to the Greens, so they’re trying to outflank them on the left. The thing is, it will fail because no one trusts them here in Israel, and I’m pretty sure that no one will trust Labour on the streets of Holborn and St Pancras.”
The confrontation comes as Mr Miliband has accused Israel of failing to prevent what he described as ethnic cleansing in parts of the occupied West Bank, including displacement allegedly carried out by “settler terrorists”.
Addressing MPs, he cited former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, who described developments in the territory as “a violent and criminal effort to ethnically cleanse territories in the West Bank”.
Mr Miliband also quoted Ephraim Sneh, a former Israeli health minister and retired brigadier general in the Israel Defense Forces, who said: “This is ethnic cleansing, pure and simple.”
The foreign secretary said the Israeli government had “all too often” failed to act on the issue, while some members of the government had made statements or taken actions that he argued supported the forced displacement of Palestinians.
He acknowledged the gravity of the terminology, saying it was “the least the people who face such suffering deserve”.
The UK has also announced sanctions targeting individuals and activities connected with alleged violations of international humanitarian law, including in Gaza.
Mr Miliband said Britain would extend its global human rights sanctions regime to cover those responsible for such violations. The government will also ban imports of goods from illegal settlements and prohibit their advertising.
Further restrictions will target services linked to settlement expansion and settler violence, widening the economic pressure being applied by London.
The dispute marks a further deterioration in UK-Israel relations, with the two governments increasingly divided over the war in Gaza, Israeli settlement policy and the treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories.
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