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Why Israeli actions and UK policy are making news

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“Israeli” is trending in the news because of coverage of a new Israeli settlement boycott, demolitions threatening Palestinian homes and schools, and documents recording longstanding British awareness of Israeli violence and rights abuses. Together, these stories focus attention on Israeli actions and Britain’s response to them.

One strand concerns the new settlement boycott, which a Guardian opinion article presents as a sign of a renewed ethical dimension in British foreign policy. The author welcomes the move and argues that it should be a starting point rather than an endpoint. Separately, reporting from Masafer Yatta describes Israeli demolitions targeting homes and schools, with students pledging to continue learning despite threats to their education.

Another report focuses on declassified UK Foreign Office files, public since 2024, that record warnings about Israeli violence and rights abuses dating back to 2002. Its headline describes the documents as showing British awareness of Israeli war crimes for 24 years, bringing past UK knowledge into the current debate over policy.

The coverage

Call it the Miliband doctrine. Let’s hope the new Israeli settlement boycott is just the start | Steve Bloomfield
PoliticsThe Guardian

Call it the Miliband doctrine. Let’s hope the new Israeli settlement boycott is just the start | Steve Bloomfield

This week’s move suggests that, even in the age of Trump, Britain will once again have an ‘ethical dimension’ to its foreign policy. That’s good for the world Almost 30 years ago, the Labour titan Robin Cook announced his arrival at the Foreign Office by laying out what would become described as an “ethical foreign policy” . The UK, he said, “must support the demands of other peoples for the democratic rights on which we insist for ourselves”. Human rights would be “at the heart of our foreign policy”. In the 25 years since Cook was demoted, Britain has had a further 14 foreign secretaries – including seven in the past six years – few of whom can claim to have placed progressive ideals at the heart of their actions. Ed Miliband’s speech on Tuesday outlining the UK’s decision to impose economic sanctions on Israeli settlements in the West Bank – and unveiling the international coalition h

This explainer is written from the reports listed above. Follow any headline for the original coverage.