Ed Miliband has overturned decades of Foreign Office inertia on illegal Israeli settlements

Foreign secretary ends UK’s feigned helplessness with sanctions and description of Israel’s actions as ethnic cleansing The indefatigable ability of UK Foreign Office ministers over decades to issue boilerplate statements of concern about the extension of illegal settlements in Israel has long been a matter of ridicule. Even some of the Conservative ministers who issued them, notably Alan Duncan and Alistair Burt, have agreed. Duncan described the UK stance towards settlements as weak and naive,