Below is the full text of a speech delivered by British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband on September 8, 2026, denouncing Israel’s occupation, accusing “settler terrorists” of government-indulged “ethnic cleansing,” and announcing sweeping UK sanctions on Israeli settlements and the expansion of an arms embargo:
Madame Deputy Speaker, with permission, I would like to make a statement on Israel and Palestine.
I do so as a proud British Jew, someone with the deepest gratitude to the State of Israel for giving a home to my grandmother after she lost her husband, my grandfather, and 60 other family members at the hands of the Nazis.
I remember visiting her in the 1970s in Tel Aviv and seeing the life and the sanctuary Israel had provided. Indeed, some of my most joyful childhood memories were picking oranges as a kid on the kibbutz where my cousins lived.
Madame Deputy Speaker, my personal story and that of thousands of British Jews is one of the many reasons why I say to anyone here or around the world who questions Israel’s right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people: you are wrong and we will call you out whenever you engage in this attempt at the erasure of Israel.
