Australia Declines to Join UK, Canada, France in West Bank Settlement Trade Ban

Australia's foreign minister Penny Wong confirmed the government will not join the UK, Canada and France in banning trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, despite Labor Party criticism and calls from MP Ed Husic for "concrete action" against settler violence. The UK has labelled settlement expansion unlawful and described settler actions as "ethnic cleansing," while Australia continues targeted sanctions against individual extremists instead. The dispute highlights growing international division over how to respond to expansion in territory central to competing claims over the land promised to Israel.