MORE than 100 British politicians have demanded that the government issue economic sanctions against Israel if it pushes forward with plans to annex parts of the West Bank. 

The letter sent to PM Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on Friday signed by 127 cross-party MPs and lords warns that annexation would be a “serious violation of international law.” 

Signatories to the letter, drafted by the Council for Arab-British Understanding, include Labour peer Alf Dubs and MPs Diane Abbott, Naz Shah and Zarah Sultana and Tories such as former party chairman Lord Patten and former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell. 

It follows threats by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s new coalition government to start annexing the Jordan Valley, an area with rich water sources, from July 1. 

“It is already clear that the Israeli government will use the cover of the Covid-19 pandemic to seek to implement this egregious plan,” the letter reads. “It is vital that the UK does everything in its power to prevent this.”