U.S. Drafted Rebuke Of UK Over West Bank Import Ban — Statement Pulled

WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM, Sept 23 — In early September, U.S. officials in Jerusalem and Washington prepared a draft statement attributed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio that condemned plans by the United Kingdom, France and Canada to block imports from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The document, dated Sept. 8, was never released.

The draft, according to two sources, was driven by David Milstein, an influential aide to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. It proposed that Rubio characterize the three countries' measures as hostile actions toward Israel and warned they risked echoing antisemitic boycott tactics.

"These tactics unacceptably draw from the playbook of the antisemitic boycotts, divestments and sanctions movement," the draft said.

Three people familiar with the matter told Reuters the draft lacked backing from the White House and the State Department’s senior leadership. Those sources spoke on condition of anonymity. When asked by reporters on Sept. 8 in Florida, Rubio gave a muted response: "Obviously, we're not going to do what the UK did. We saw their announcement today, but I don't have any comment on it right now."

Political Divisions and Wider Implications

The episode underscores widening divisions within the U.S. political right and between Washington’s senior leadership and diplomats over how to respond to Israel’s settlement expansion under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government. It also highlights changing public attitudes: several polls show U.S. support for Israel has weakened since the Gaza war began in 2023, especially among Democrats and younger Republicans.

President Donald Trump expressed opposition to settlement expansion earlier this year but his administration has generally been reluctant to press Israel to change course. Huckabee, a prominent pro-settlement voice who often refers to the West Bank by the biblical term "Judea and Samaria," has sometimes been at odds with other U.S. officials on approach and rhetoric.

Background And Context

Milstein last year advocated imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court to try to dissuade investigations into alleged Israeli war crimes related to the Gaza conflict — a measure the U.S. has not taken. The draft statement at the center of this report was, a senior U.S. official said, not prepared in consultation with the State Department or the White House. The U.S. embassy directed Reuters’ questions to the State Department; the White House did not respond to a request for comment.

The piece also notes the human and demographic context in the West Bank: roughly 500,000 Israeli settlers and about 3 million Palestinians reside in the territory that Palestinians envision as part of a future state alongside Gaza and East Jerusalem. The United Nations and most countries consider settlements illegal under the international law of military occupation; Israel disputes that description and regards the land as disputed.

Violence by some Jewish settlers against Palestinians has surged in 2024, with critics saying some perpetrators feel emboldened by support from elements within Netanyahu’s government. Huckabee has condemned this violence publicly and urged prosecutions while stressing that violent settlers are a minority and do not represent the entire settler community.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Alexander Cornwell; editing by Don Durfee, Rami Ayyub and Daniel Wallis.)