David Cameron ramps up the pressure on Israel with travel ban on ‘extremist settlers’ who are ‘targeting and killing Palestinians’

David Cameron today ramped up the pressure on Israel by announcing ‘extremist settlers’ responsible for violence against Palestinians will be banned from Britain.

As he announced the move, the Foreign Secretary said Israel ‘must take stronger action to stop settler violence and hold the perpetrators accountable’. 

The action came as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pushed back at Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely’s dismissal of a two-state solution in the Middle East.

The PM insisted Britain would be sticking to its ‘longstanding position’ that a two-state solution is ‘the right outcome’.

Mr Sunak also again expressed his worries about the continuing conflict between Israel and Hamas, as he said ‘far too many innocent people have lost their lives’.

In a post this morning on X, formerly known as Twitter, Lord Cameron announced the action against those who commit ‘intimidating acts’. 

‘Extremist settlers, by targeting and killing Palestinian civilians, are undermining security and stability for both Israelis and Palestinians,’ the Foreign Secretary wrote.

‘Israel must take stronger action to stop settler violence and hold the perpetrators accountable.

‘We are banning those responsible for settler violence from entering the UK to make sure our country cannot be a home for people who commit these intimidating acts.’ 

A group of 56 MPs and peers had yesterday written to both Lord Cameron and Home Secretary James Cleverly to demand such a travel ban on violent Israeli settlers.

Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are one of the most heated issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Palestinians want the area, occuped by Israel since a 1967 war, for a future state.

In their letter, the parliamentarians wrote: ‘We write to ask that Israeli settlers who commit or incite crimes of violence and intimidation against Palestinians in the West Bank should be barred from entry into the UK.

‘There is good British precedent for such action. We believe that the case for British Government action is very strong.’

The MPs and peers also expressed their ‘grave concern not only that the Israeli army and police are ordered to protect the settlers only, and not the Palestinian people living under occupation, but that they have also been assisting Israeli settlers in attacks on Palestinian communitites’.

They warned that Israeli settlers ‘enjoy a climate of impunity’, which they compared to the arrest of ‘over 3,000’ Palestinians in the West Bank since the Hamas terror attacks on Israel on 7 October.

The letter added: ‘Expressing concern is not enough; Israel needs to heed your words or face serious consequences for its consistent failure to adhere to the international laws and conventions which it has signed and ratified.’

Labour’s shadow foreign secretary David Lammy had also recently demanded the Government impose UK entry bans on any settlers who had been identified as being involved in ‘serious criminal activity or in fostering hatred’.

The announcement of a travel ban on ‘extremist settlers’ by Lord Cameron came after Mr Sunak had insisted Britain still backs a two-state solution.

The PM said the UK ‘doesn’t agree’ with Israeli ambassador Ms Hotovely’s comments that there is ‘absolutely no’ prospect of a Palestinian state.

The envoy to London made the remark in an interview with Sky News, as fighting continues in Gaza following Hamas’s October 7 massacre of Israeli civilians.

Asked whether there was a chance of a Palestinian state, Ms Hotovely said: ‘Absolutely no.’

Pressed on how peace could be achieved without two states, she responded: ‘Israel knows today, and the world should know now that the Palestinians never wanted to have a state next to Israel.

‘They want to have a state from the river to the sea. They are saying it loud and clear.

‘It’s now two months after the war started. The Palestinian Authority didn’t condemn this massacre. It’s such a big problem.’

Questioned by broadcasters on a visit to the Wren Academy in Finchley, north London, Mr Sunak said: ‘We don’t agree with that.

‘Our longstanding position remains the two-state solution is the right outcome here.

‘And more immediately, what is going on is incredibly concerning. I’ve said consistently, far too many innocent people have lost their lives.

‘No-one wants this conflict to go on for a moment longer than is necessary.’

Mr Sunak added: ‘We will continue to support calls for a sustainable ceasefire where hostages are released, more aid can get in, and the rockets, crucially, stop being fired from Hamas into Israel as well.’