In a letter organised by Caabu (Council for Arab-British Understanding), 119 Parliamentarians in the UK have signed a letter to the Foreign Secretary, Rt Hon. Yvette Cooper MP following yet further illegal Israeli government measures in the occupied West Bank, part of the illegally occupied State of Palestine.
Writing to the Foreign Secretary, they call on the UK government to impose a complete and total ban on all trade and interaction with Israeli settlements and the occupation itself, further sanctions against illegal Israeli settlers and settler groups, and for the UK government to publish, as it has promised, its formal response to the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) Advisory Opinion on the unlawfulness of the occupation.
Commenting on this, Caabu's Head of Parliamentary Affairs, Joseph Willits, said:
"The ethnic cleansing of Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank continues at pace, if anything, intensifying as Israel carries out its bombing of Iran and Lebanon, and continues its genocide in Gaza, in the hope that its total erasure of Palestinian communities will go unnoticed. Or that settler violence will be deemed something minor and trivial. The UK Government has recently promised "concrete steps", but what are they? Palestinians and others, including Parliamentarians in the UK, have been waiting for decades to see what action will be taken. As ever, successive UK governments can never say they didn't know about Israel's war on such communities and the attempts to destroy them."
If your MP has not signed this letter, please do send this to them, encouraging them to do so. You can find your MP here.
The letter can be read in full here:
3 March 2026
Rt Hon Yvette Cooper MP
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
King Charles Street, London SW1
Dear Secretary of State,
Following yet further illegal Israeli government measures in the West Bank part of the State of Palestine, we are writing to you as MPs and Peers to urge the government to move from statements of condemnation to specific sanctions to compel Israel to abide by international law and not destroy the state the UK recognised in September.
Israel has escalated its illegal policies at a number of levels.
Firstly, Israel has engaged in a massive increase in the pace of settlement building and land confiscation. In 2025, Israel issued a record number of settlement housing tenders totalling 9,629 housing units more than the combined total of tenders published over the previous six years. In December, Israel announced 19 new illegal settlements, bringing the total number of new settlements for the 2023–2025 period to 68. Israel has also pressed forward with a settlement plan at Adam to expand its self-declared borders of Jerusalem taking further West Bank land.
Secondly, Israel has, against the collective will of the international community, pushed forward with the ‘Doomsday’ E1 settlement east of Jerusalem publishing 3,401 tenders in January. This will sever the city from the rest of the West Bank, and split it for Palestinians at least, north to south. It will destroy any chance of a sovereign viable Palestinian state, which is the stated aim of the Israeli government in doing it.
Thirdly, with the active assistance of the Israeli military, settlers and settler groups have escalated their attacks on vulnerable Palestinian communities to record levels. This has led to a massive drop in the Palestinian population of Area C of the West Bank, as they are forcibly displaced and driven into overcrowded cities. Whole communities have been ethnically cleansed.
Fourthly, Israel has introduced major legal changes to facilitate yet further confiscation of Palestinian land in the West Bank, and cementing the discriminatory regime, where Israeli settlers have superior rights to Palestinian neighbours. This includes annulling Jordanian land laws and opening up the records of private Palestinian land ownership, leaving those owners vulnerable to both coercion and fraud, as pointed out by the Israeli group, Peace Now. This has further cemented what many observers see as the de facto annexation of the West Bank part of the State of Palestine.
Given the above and the ongoing Israeli military actions in the north of the West Bank that has seen the destruction of three refugee camps and the forced displacement of over 40,000 Palestinians, we urge the government
- To impose a complete and total ban on all trade and interaction with Israeli settlements and the occupation itself.
- To introduce further sanctions against settlers and settler groups to toughen the measures taken so far.
- To publish as promised the UK’s formal response to the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion on the unlawfulness of the Israeli occupation.
Time is of the essence. A failure to thwart these Israeli plans will crush any slim chances remaining of moving towards a viable peace process let alone a credible peace agreement.
Yours sincerely,
Signed by:
Rt Hon. Diane Abbott MP
Debbie Abrahams MP
Shockat Adam MP
Baroness Wendy Alexander of Cleveden
Rushanara Ali MP
Dr Rosena Allin-Khan MP
Alex Ballinger MP
Paula Barker MP
Lorraine Beavers MP
Órfhlaith Begley MP
Apsana Begum MP
Siân Berry MP
Kirsty Blackman MP
Rt Hon. Baroness Tessa Blackstone
Baroness Christine Blower
Richard Burgon MP
Ian Byrne MP
Rt Hon. Alistair Carmichael MP
Sarah Champion MP
Rt Revd. Guli Francis-Dehqani, Lord Bishop of Chelmsford
Dr Ellie Chowns MP
Lizzi Collinge MP
Rt Hon. Jeremy Corbyn MP
Pat Cullen MP
Steve Darling MP
Ann Davies MP
Marsha de Cordova MP
Carla Denyer MP
Dave Doogan MP
Neil Duncan-Jordan MP
Colum Eastwood MP
Sorcha Eastwood MP
Cat Eccles MP
Baroness Julie Elliott of Whitburn Bay
Patricia Ferguson MP
John Finucane MP
Rt Hon. Stephen Flynn MP
Gill Furniss MP
Andrew George MP
Stephen Gethins MP
Rt Revd. Rachel Treweek, Lord Bishop of Gloucester
Rt Hon. Lord Peter Hain
Chris Hazzard MP
Lord John Hendy KC
Baroness Fiona Hodgson of Abinger CBE
Dáire Hughes MP
Dr Rupa Huq MP
Adnan Hussain MP
Imran Hussain MP
Baroness Meral Hussein-Ece OBE
Baroness Barbara Janke
Kim Johnson MP
Baroness Helena Kennedy of The Shaws LT KC
Afzal Khan MP
Ayoub Khan MP
Uma Kumaran MP
Ben Lake MP
Peter Lamb MP
Ian Lavery MP
Chris Law MP
Graham Leadbitter MP
Brian Leishman MP
Clive Lewis MP
Baroness Ruth Lister of Burtersett
Seamus Logan MP
Andy McDonald MP
Rt Hon. John McDonnell MP
Ben Maguire MP
Cathal Mallaghan MP
Rt Hon. Kit Malthouse MP
Paul Maskey MP
Charlie Maynard MP
Rachael Maskell MP
Brian Mathew MP
Llinos Medi MP
Navendu Mishra MP
Baroness Nosheena Mobarik CBE
Abtisam Mohamed MP
Iqbal Mohamed MP
Lord Shaffaq Mohammed
Layla Moran MP
Grahame Morris MP
Tom Morrison MP
Rt Hon. Baroness Lindsay Northover
Rt Revd. Graham Usher, Lord Bishop of Norwich
Lord Jonny Oates
Brendan O’Hara MP
Dr Simon Opher MP
Kate Osamor MP
Kate Osborne MP
Sarah Owen MP
Manuela Perteghella MP
Yasmin Qureshi MP
Adrian Ramsay MP
Martin Rhodes MP
Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP
Marie Rimmer MP
Rt Hon. Liz Saville Roberts MP
Naz Shah MP
Baroness Shaista Sheehan
Lord Indarjit Singh of Wimbledon CBE
Andy Slaughter MP
Jeff Smith MP
Rt Revd. Christopher Chessun, Lord Bishop of Southwark
Euan Stainbank MP
Zarah Sultana MP
Rt Hon. Lord Hugo Swire KCMG
Gareth Thomas MP
Rt Hon. Dame Emily Thornberry MP
Baroness Manzila Uddin
Rt Hon. Valerie Vaz MP
Martin Vickers MP
Rt Hon. Baroness Sayeeda Warsi
Matt Western MP
Nadia Whittome MP
Munira Wilson MP
Pete Wishart MP
Steve Witherden MP
Lord Stewart Wood of Anfield
Since the letter was sent, the following Parliamentarians have also added their names to the letter:
Chris Hinchcliff MP
Helen Hayes MP
Susan Murray MP
Helen Maguire MP
Danny Chambers MP
Yuan Yang MP
