Stephen Kinnock MP said that the sale in this country of products from Israeli settlements “is tantamount to profiting from the proceeds of crime and it must stop.”
Speaking during a House of Commons debate on settlement and annexation in “occupied Palestinian territories”, he said the UK government should ban items produced by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
“Profiting from these products is tantamount to profiting from the proceeds of crime and it must stop.
“When we trade with these settlements we are essentially telling the world that international law does not matter and such trade legitimises and facilitates the existence and expansion of the settlements.
“In 2014, it was right that the UK as part of the European Union prohibited trade with Crimea following its illegal annexation by Russia. It is crucial that we are consistent in our application of international law,” he said.
Mr Kinnock also criticised what he said was Israel’s “constant flouting of UN resolutions and the fourth Geneva convention [that] have undermined the rules-based order for decades and the international community can no longer just look the other way.”
But he added: “Both sides in this conflict have witnessed horrific bloodshed and both sides deserve an end to the fear and suffering they have had to experience.”
Earlier, as the out-going chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Palestine, Mr Kinnock said the parliamentary debate was not about religion, being pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian, but about “striving for peace, security and justice for all.”
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