Daily Times Editorials 9th September 2026

Sanctioning Israeli Settlers

Britain on Tuesday moved beyond the ritual condemnations that have accompanied Israeli settlement expansion for decades. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced a ban on imports from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories and restrictions on companies involved in settlement construction, financing and real estate. Britain and 11 other countries have announced, supported or are considering further curbs on settlement trade. Miliband also used language rarely heard from a British foreign secretary, accusing settlers of “ethnic cleansing,” describing “unprecedented settler terrorism” and calling the occupation unlawful.

For years, Western policy has rested on a contradiction that became impossible to disguise. Settlements were declared illegal. Their expansion was condemned. Their effect on a future Palestinian state was deplored. Then trade continued, finance flowed and new facts appeared on the ground.

The legal position is hardly new. Security Council Resolution 2334 says settlements established in territory occupied since 1967 have no legal validity. In 2024, the International Court of Justice held that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful and that states must neither recognise nor assist the situation created by it. It also required states to distinguish between Israel and the territories occupied since 1967.

To be clear, London is not imposing a general embargo on Israel. It is drawing a line between commerce inside Israel and economic activity tied to occupied land. No matter what the propagandists may scream, that is not a radical departure from international law. It is only an attempt to enforce it.

The settlement enterprise is sustained by more than ideology and armed settlers. It depends on roads, finance, construction, and markets. For years, governments sanctioned individuals while leaving much of the economic structure around settlement expansion untouched.

Emboldened by the impunity, settler violence has displaced more than 2,300 Palestinians this year alone, while more than 6,200 have been displaced since January 2023. Entire communities have been emptied. At the same time, projects such as E1 continue to threaten the territorial contiguity of any future Palestinian state.

Washington’s refusal to follow London is even harder to defend. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned against steps that might destabilise the West Bank. Yet settlement expansion, settler violence and the steady fragmentation of Palestinian territory are themselves engines of instability.

It goes without saying that Britain also carries a history that cannot be wished away. From Balfour onwards, London has been entangled in the political fate of Palestine. Tuesday’s measures do not settle that account and should not be treated as some grand moral conversion.

Still, they are useful for a simpler reason.

International law cannot remain a set of buzzwords reserved for adversaries. If occupation is unlawful, assisting its permanence cannot be treated as ordinary commerce. Similarly, if settlements have no legal validity, their products and financing cannot indefinitely enjoy the privileges of legality. *

Saving Sharks

Pakistan’s first National Plan of Action for shark conservation comes with a warning that should affect the finance ministry as much as the fisheries department. Shark landings in Pakistani waters have fallen by more than 85 per cent over the past five decades. The 10-year plan announced on Tuesday proposes controls on finning and bycatch, protection for vulnerable species, shark sanctuaries, mangrove restoration, stock assessments and vessel monitoring.

Islamabad is making large promises about the sea economy. Seafood exports reached a record $568 million in FY2025-26. Fisheries, ports, shipping, ship recycling, aquaculture, coastal tourism and offshore energy now populate the government’s blue-economy plans. The finance ministry puts the maritime sector’s present contribution at barely 0.4 per cent of the GDP, while endorsing an ambition to turn it into a $100 billion economy by 2047.

There are few economic frontiers in Pakistan with such obvious room for growth. There are also few where bad accounting could do more damage.Pakistan Travel Guide

Those standing at the wheel need to realise that the sea does not become richer because more is taken from it.

That should change the way Pakistan thinks about fisheries exports. The objective cannot simply be more tonnes. A serious fisheries economy earns more from what it catches through processing, refrigeration, traceability, certification and access to higher-value markets.

Pakistan should be asking itself why a country with more than 1,000 kilometres of coastline remains such a modest seafood exporter, not how quickly it can put more boats into already pressured waters.

Mangroves make the same case from the shore. Our mangrove ecosystems hold an estimated 19.8 million tonnes of organic carbon. They also provide breeding habitat, reduce erosion and absorb some of the force of storms and coastal flooding. The World Bank has warned that, without adequate adaptation, around one million Pakistanis could be exposed to coastal flooding annually between 2070 and 2100.

That is why the shark plan will earn its keep. Stock assessments, vessel monitoring, landing-site data and controls on bycatch may not carry the glamour of new ports or billion-dollar maritime projections, but without them the blue economy risks becoming another exercise in spending ecological capital while booking the proceeds as growth. *