UK government defends decision to ban trade with Israeli settlements

LONDON -- British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said Wednesday he was disappointed with Israel’s response to the government's decision to ban trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, and rejected criticism from the U.K.'s chief rabbi.Israel responded Tuesday by closing the British consulate in east Jerusalem and banning 11 lawmakers from the country.“I regret what the Israeli government has announced, but I’m proud of what we did yesterday and it was the right thing to do,” Miliband told Sky News.The U.K.'s tougher stance was followed by France and Canada's leaders saying they would take similar action to prevent expanding settlements and growing violence from making it impossible to establish a future Palestinian state.Miliband said “settler terrorists” were carrying out “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians in the U.K. government's biggest pushback to Israel since it recognized Palestinian statehood a year ago. He said there had been “houses bulldozed, roads and public infrastructure destroyed, families displaced from their homes.”Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar condemned the “despicable” move and said Israel would expel U.K. representatives from a joint milita...