The UK’s Targeted Campaign Against Israeli Families Must Stop

Peloni:  Again and again and again, Western Leftists come to Israel while seeking a basis on which  to target citizens of the Jewish state so as to both distract their constituency but also to gain greater support among the activist radicalized Islamists within their constituency.   As Islamist grow in power and strength in the West, they are gaining greater influence over their domestic leadership, which has an important consequence not only for the Israelis living in their own homeland, but also for the non Islamist members of the relative domestic populations in the West.

By Moshe Phillips

Baroness Jennifer Chapman.  Screengrab via Youtube

It is summer once again, and anti-Zionist politicians in the UK have started another unfair attack against Jewish families and communities in Judea and Samaria. Recently, a debate in the UK Parliament focused on a dangerous proposal to make it a crime to buy land in Judea and Samaria. Supporters of this idea argued that the settlements are illegal under international law. Thankfully, several opponents in the legislature rightly challenged the proposal, pointing out that it is completely discriminatory and inconsistent.

Baroness Jennifer Chapman shockingly called for criminalizing these property transactions, repeating the old line that the settlements are illegal. Rightfully, Lord Martin John Callanan of the Conservative Party strongly opposed this nonsense. He argued that Britain does not apply similar criminal penalties to property purchases in other disputed territories around the world. He questioned why Judea-Samaria (what far too many UK politicians painfully label as the “West Bank”) should be singled out, especially when such a measure could extend to Area C, which remains under full Israeli control under the Oslo Accords. He warned that this unfair law would even criminalize British Jews for purchasing a home in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. Callanan also argued that territorial disputes should be handled through international law between states, rather than through domestic criminal law aimed at individual buyers.

Lord Stuart Polak, another Conservative, criticized what he described as a massive double standard. He agreed with strong comments made earlier by Baroness Helic and Baroness Deech, questioning why similar restrictions were not being considered for British citizens purchasing property in Northern Cyprus which Turkey occupies illegally. Polak warned that the proposal would promote the anti-Semitic idea that Judea and Samaria—an area that remained under Israeli administration throughout the Oslo Accords—should be ethnically cleansed of its Jews. Baroness Deech also questioned the proposal, asking why British citizens who holiday or buy property in Northern Cyprus face no penalties. She asked plainly: “Or is the aim simply to target Jews? If this were implemented, in what way could it possibly contribute to lasting peace?”

This is part of a frustrating summer pattern.

In May 2025 David Lammy, the British Foreign Secretary, stated: “The sanctioning of Daniella Weiss and others today demonstrates our determination to hold extremist settlers to account as Palestinian communities suffer violence and intimidation at the hands of extremist settlers.”

Oren Marmorstein, spokesperson for Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, called the sanctions “unjustified and regrettable.”

But that’s not the point here. Ever since 1968—when a group of young Jewish families moved into a hotel in Hebron—there has been consistent opposition to Jews making homes in areas Israel took control of after its victory in the Six-Day War. From the very beginning, settlers have been a target for demonization.

Daniella Weiss is not the monster the British depicted her as. A strictly Orthodox woman, Weiss is the former mayor of the community of Kedumim. No one can deny that Weiss has been a force in building, sustaining, and protecting Jewish communities in the West Bank. But if she were guilty of violent acts herself, why didn’t Lammy say so?

And then in June 2025, Lammy joined the foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, and others in announcing sanctions specifically targeting two Israeli cabinet members that are well known for championing the rights of Jewish families in Judea and Samaria. That action was entirely wrong and morally bankrupt. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in response that the U.S. “condemns the sanctions” and “urges the reversal of the sanctions.” Rubio was right.

Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority (PA) have promoted hatred against everyday Israelis for decades in textbooks and state-sponsored media. The 2025 accusations against the elected Israeli leaders represented a terrible double standard. It was shameful that the foreign ministers chose to condemn Jewish families for living in historically Jewish areas, and attempted to dictate to Israelis how to protect their nation’s future.

The UK and other foreign ministers wrote that they “are steadfastly committed to the two-state solution.” Yet, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, said: “The idea of the two-state solution is something which, on record, I supported in the past, many times. But I had a wake-up call following October 7.” Polls in Israel have shown for several years now that over two-thirds of Israelis support extending Israeli sovereignty over these territories including a poll that the New York Post reported on in its July 12 issue that just 22% of Israelis support the so-called “two state solution.”

It is wrong for any foreign officials to unilaterally declare where Jews can and cannot build homes for their families. Both Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich were receiving death threats from Palestinian Arab terrorist groups that year. The fact that the foreign ministers decided to sanction Israelis was completely unjust. Secretary Rubio was right when he stated, “We remind our partners not to forget who the real enemy is,” on the very same day the sanctions were announced.

Looking back even further, at the end of summer 2024, the British government attacked Jewish life in Judea and Samaria yet again. In an official statement at the UN Security Council, they declared that “the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank is wholly unacceptable and illegal.”

Three years of these constant attacks is enough. It is past time for these extremist British politicians to accept the fact that Jews have a right to live in their ancestral lands. Do these British politicians really object to the idea of Jewish families living in areas where ancient Jewish history is everywhere? The city of Hebron is in Judea and is the ancient resting place of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah; this proves the Jewish heritage of the region. Would UK politicians force hundreds of thousands of young Jews out of their homes? Isn’t that the very definition of the “ethnic cleansing” they claim to oppose?

What’s more, the Israeli presence in these communities is permitted by the Oslo Accords. This is not to say that Israel’s right to the area is based only on agreements made in Oslo; it is based on more than 3,000 years of continuous Jewish history and many centuries of Jewish national sovereignty—as well as international law and the Bible. Regardless, the fact remains that the Palestinian Authority explicitly agreed to the presence of these settlement communities.

Sandra Hagee Parker, an attorney, author, and chairwoman for the CUFI Action Fund, which is related to the one of the largest pro-Israel organizations in the United States, Christians United for Israel (CUFI), has said “From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is a Zionist document.” Sandra Hagee Parker, is right and too many of the UK’s politicians are wrong. Very wrong.

Moshe Phillips is national chairman of Americans For A Safe Israel, AFSI, (www.AFSI.org), a leading pro-Israel advocacy and education organization.