US Threatens UK and Europe With Sanctions Over Israeli Settlement Boycotts

A Trump administration official threatened Britain and other European countries on Tuesday with retaliatory sanctions over boycotts of Israeli settlements, describing the restrictions as antisemitic.

Harmeet Dhillon, an assistant U.S. attorney general in the Justice Department’s civil rights division, singled out the U.K., France and Norway as she warned against participation in the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement.

Any country joining BDS, she said, “is going to risk, while President Trump is in power, retaliatory or corresponding sanctions.”

Washington Signals a Harder Line

The warning suggests a tougher stance toward European settlement restrictions after senior U.S. officials previously stopped short of condemning them.

“I do consider BDS, and I think most people in my government consider it, to be a form of anti-Semitism, and we call it as such,” Dhillon said.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month that Washington had no plans to impose sanctions of its own on Israel. He did not condemn the measures adopted by Britain and other countries.

The White House had also distanced itself from an earlier warning by Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, that Britain could suffer economic consequences.

An administration official told POLITICO that Huckabee was acting independently.

Britain Restricts Settlement Trade

Britain announced measures in September covering goods, services and advertising linked to illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The package, announced alongside Canada and France, included restrictions on companies and individuals supporting settlement expansion.

Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband accused Israel of overlooking the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians by settlers when he presented the policy.

Settler attacks on Palestinians have increased sharply, while hardline ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have openly backed further settlement expansion.

Diplomatic Dispute Deepens

Israel responded by expelling dozens of British officials and ordering Britain’s consulate in East Jerusalem to close.

Britain was considering the expulsion of dozens of Israeli diplomats on Tuesday if the consulate closure proceeds, Reuters reported.

The dispute has intensified since Miliband became foreign secretary in July and pledged a broad revision of British policy toward Israel.

Trump avoided addressing the British sanctions directly during a meeting with Prime Minister Andy Burnham last month, leaving Burnham to explain the decision.