CAMPAIGNERS criticised PM Boris Johnson’s “gentle” warnings against annexation today, saying they “fall outstandingly short” of the response required from Britain. 

In an article published in an Israeli newspaper today, Mr Johnson said he “profoundly hoped” annexation would not go ahead. 

“Annexation would represent a violation of international law,” the PM wrote in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. “It would also be a gift to those who want to perpetuate the old stories about Israel.”

The pitiful warning came as plans to officially annex parts of the West Bank, which Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu intended to start from July 1, look set to stall. 

Mr Johnson claimed the violation of international law would “jeopardise the progress that Israel has made in improving relationships with the Arab and Muslim world” and would be “seized on” by Israel’s “enemies.”

Palestine Solidarity Campaign director Ben Jamal told the Morning Star that the PM’s “softly penned words of gentle advice fall astoundingly short of what is required of the UK in response to Israel’s threat of annexation.”

“We call on Boris Johnson to urgently and immediately heed the call for ‘effective measures’ by Palestinian civil society that has been echoed by so much of the international community,” he continued. 

“The time for sanctions is now.” 

Labour shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy has made repeated calls for the British government to impose a ban on settler goods should Israel press ahead with annexation. 

However campaigners have pointed out that a ban on imports from Israel’s illegal settlements – which have deprived Palestinians of huge portions of the land, farmland and curtailed their freedom of movement – is simply upholding international law.