LONDON (Dispatches) – A letter signed by 61 MPs from several political parties has urged the British government to impose a ban on illegal settlement goods from the Israeli-occupied Palestinian lands.
The letter, sent to the business and trade secretary by Labour MP Abtisam Mohamed, alleges that the UK’s trade and investment relationship with the Zionist regime “falls short of the standards required” under international law.
It cites the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to support its view.
The letter notes the ICJ’s advisory opinion last July that states must not “render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation” caused by the Zionist regime’s occupation of Palestinian territory - an occupation the ICJ said was illegal.
By declaring that states must “abstain from entering into economic or trade dealings with Israel” concerning the occupied territories “which may entrench its unlawful presence”, the ICJ asserted that boycotting Israeli settlement goods is an obligation for states.
Britain, however, continues to permit the import of settlement goods into the UK.
“These economic relations help to sustain Israel’s settlement economy and entrench the forcible transfer of Palestinians from their homes and land,” the letter says. 
It urges the Labour government to “fulfill its legal obligations as set out by the ICJ” and “ban the import of all goods into the UK made in whole or in part in Israel’s illegal settlements.”
In September, the UK abstained on a UN General Assembly resolution supporting the ICJ’s advisory opinion.
In October, Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced fresh sanctions against three settler outposts and four organizations he said were responsible for “heinous abuses of human rights” against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. 
But many experts question whether existing sanctions have gone far enough.
Alon Liel, formerly director general of Israel’s foreign ministry, told Middle East Eye in January that the Labour government’s existing moves were unlikely to place pressure on Israel.