UK trade envoy visits occupied Haifa amid London’s claim of freezing talks with Israel
Britain’s trade envoy to Israel Ian Austin has toured occupied Haifa despite claims by the UK government of suspension of its trade talks with the regime over the genocidal war on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
In an X post on Tuesday, Austin said he is in the occupied territories to “meet businesses & officials to promote trade with the UK.”
The controversial visit raised questions among journalists and observers about London’s policy toward the Tel Aviv regime.
Austin’s trip came a week after British Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced that negotiations over a new free trade deal with Israel have been paused, calling for an end to the occupation’s blockade of aid into Gaza.
In a statement in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Lammy said Israel’s plan for a major military assault against Gaza is “morally unjustifiable, wholly disproportionate and utterly counterproductive.”
He also strongly condemned Israel’s attempts to forcibly expel Palestinians from Gaza as extremist, dangerous, “repellent” and “monstrous.”
The top UK diplomat further said wider talks about a future bilateral strategic roadmap with Israel were being reviewed, noting that the actions of the cabinet of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu “have made this necessary.”
Additionally, he denounced Israeli settler violence in the West Bank and imposed sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans, against three individuals and four companies who were “carrying out heinous abuses of human rights.”
The UK has suspended free trade negotiations with Israel, after its prime minister said he was horrified by the Israelis’ escalation of the war in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the UK’s Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer summoned Israel’s ambassador to London Tzipi Hotovely to the Foreign Office in reaction to “the wholly disproportionate” expansion of Israeli attacks on Gaza.
Israel’s foreign ministry accused the UK of having an anti-Israel obsession.
Israel launched its genocide in Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the Hamas resistance group carried out a historic operation against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
More than 19 months into its brutal onslaught, the Tel Aviv regime has failed to achieve its declared objectives in Gaza despite killing at least 53,977 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 122,966 others.
Over 800 lawyers, academics urge UK to slap sanction on Israel
Also on Monday, more than 800 lawyers, academics and retired judges, called on the UK government to level sanctions on the Israeli regime and its ministers.
In a letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, they urged Britain to execute the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his former minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant.
London, they added, should secure an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, the resumption of aid to the besieged territory and the lifting of Israel’s ban on the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA).
“There is mounting evidence of acts of genocide, forced displacement and collective punishment against the Palestinian people as well as the further annexation of occupied territory” by Israel, they said. “Urgent and decisive action is required to avert the destruction of the Palestinian population of Gaza.”
The lawyers and academics further called on the British government to consider suspending Israel from the UN amid the regime’s war crimes, crimes against humanity and serious violations of international humanitarian law.
