// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
'An injustice' or 'righting a wrong': British Jews debate sanctions move
Rabbi Leo Dee - seen here with his late wife Lucy - said the UK government's sanctions were an "injustice"
From his home in the occupied West Bank settlement of Efrat, British-Israeli Rabbi Leo Dee wrote an open letter to Andy Burnham on Wednesday, accusing him of deciding "to single out Jewish Israelis like me for economic punishment".
The rabbi's British-born wife Lucy, and their daughters Maia and Rina, were killed by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in 2023. They were shot dead as they drove through the Jordan Valley.
"I am enraged at the injustice of the situation," he told the BBC, claiming the government's decision to place sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements, and not the Palestinian authority, was hypocritical.
He said Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband was "living in a different universe", and argued that the main group who would face hardship as a result were the hundreds of Palestinians who were employed in them.
Settlements are illegal under international law, and there has been a rise in violence towards Palestinians in the occupied West Bank by settlers since the start of the Gaza war, which was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
Miliband said the sanctions, announced after Israel opened up tenders for the construction of some 1,200 settlement homes, were necessary to safeguard the possibility of a two-state solution - and to ensure the UK "not only calls out injustice and suffering, but acts".
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