Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband has announced UK sanctions banning goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, targeting what he called "illegal settlements and settlement expansion" and citing allegations of "ethnic cleansing" perpetrated by settler extremists. However, Palestinian and Israeli-Arab workers and business owners in the area have told the Daily Mail the measures could backfire, costing them their jobs and livelihoods rather than helping the cause they are meant to support. The row centres partly on the controversial E1 project, a plan to build over 3,400 settler homes east of Jerusalem that critics say would divide the West Bank and threaten a future Palestinian state.

Business owners cited in the report warned of significant knock-on damage: one Jerusalem employer said the ban would punish 7,000 Palestinians working in a single commercial centre, while the British embassy in Tel Aviv reportedly warned it would be "not possible" to implement the restrictions without harming the 17,600 Palestinians employed in West Bank settlements. Maya Food Industries, which employs around 350 Palestinians and exports roughly one million euros (£860,000) of goods to Britain annually, has already cut working days amid the uncertainty, even though Miliband said the ban would not take effect for six to nine months. While the Palestinian Authority and Hamas welcomed the sanctions as an "important step," workers on the ground said politics should be kept separate from their livelihoods.