Netanyahu attacks Britain as London considers a settlement goods ban

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used an interview broadcast by Army Radio to attack Britain, calling it the "Islamic republic of Britain" and describing what he termed "a dramatic shift" in British attitudes towards his country.

He set the coverage he sees in Britain today against the support he said Israel had received from the British media during the 1967 war.

The remarks were reported as the UK government weighs a further package of measures aimed at Israel and its settlement enterprise, among them a ban on goods produced in settlements in the occupied West Bank and sanctions on settlers and on organisations tied to the settlement movement. The report attaches no date to the package and names no minister behind it.

Britain's own record sits behind the exchange. The Labour government suspended 29 export licences in September 2024 after identifying a "clear risk" that British-made equipment could be used in violations of international humanitarian law, a step the foreign secretary at the time, David Lammy, said was "not an arms embargo".

By February 2026, 395 licences remained unsuspended. Of those, 203 covered military goods, and the military licences outside the F-35 programme carried a maximum value of £130m. Britain has also flown surveillance over Gaza and passed intelligence to Israel, and its military personnel have kept working ties with Israeli forces.

That gap is what makes the reaction worth reading closely. A settlement goods ban and settler sanctions would touch trade and travel tied to the West Bank, and would leave the licences, the flights and the intelligence relationship where they are — so the package drawing the sharpest language from Netanyahu is the one that reaches the smallest part of what Britain currently provides.