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The United Kingdom, joined by Canada and France, announced this week that they are taking action against Israeli settlements in the West Bank. It’s an announcement that is at once groundbreaking and insufficient.

Specifically, the UK said it would suspend export licenses for weapons materially supporting Israel’s illegal occupation; ban imports of Israeli settlement goods, and; sanction private companies providing services–including financial services–that enable settlement expansion.

Those are, without a doubt, positive steps. They break with the long-standing western practice of empty condemnations of settlement activity without establishing any consequences if Israel continues that activity.

The fact that the sanctions the UK announced could include firms that provide services that support the expansion of settlements is also a meaningful and groundbreaking step. It widens the scope of actions that can be taken to prevent settlement expansion to areas that are much easier to influence than Israeli settlers themselves, especially in the field of finance.

In explaining these sanctions to the House of Commons, UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband bolstered accusations of war crimes against Israel and even described its actions on the West Bank as “ethnic cleansing.”

UK, France, and Canada Announce Bans on Goods from Illegal Israeli Settlements

That is perhaps the most important development here. A major ally of Israel, one which is often said to have its own “special relationship” with the United States, is supporting the decision of the International Court of Justice that declared Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza illegal.

That could profoundly change the international discourse regarding the politics around not just settlements but the occupation as a whole.

These are unquestionably good things, and represent real progress, coming from a sector that has been so complicit with Israeli crimes and so hypocritical in ignoring the yawning gap between British rhetoric on the issue and its actions.

But the enthusiasm in some quarters over this announcement is overblown. There is a need to pump the brakes and prepare for a much greater push that can capitalize on this promising first step, address its shortcomings, and create something impactful.

What’s Missing in the UK Statement

Obviously, we cannot expect the United Kingdom to go from a regressive, genocide-enabling policy to one that promotes real justice and hope in one day. Since that is too much to ask, we need to be clear-eyed about what is still needed, not to chastise Miliband or his new boss, Prime Minister Andy Burnham, but to encourage and push them to go much further.

The exclusive targeting of settlements means that expansion will be more costly for Israel and that settlement enterprises themselves would face barriers to their income.

That’s great, but it is also already international law and, ostensibly, the policy of both the UK and the European Union. The problem is not the rules, it’s their enforcement.

The sanctions on settlements will not go into effect for six to nine months, and we can be sure that legal and political challenges will be mounted by Israel and its........

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