London: The British government has called on UK companies to cease all their activities in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper announced in parliament today.

According to Oman News Agency, Cooper stated that no British citizen or company should engage in any economic or financial activity in illegal Israeli settlements. She emphasized that violent settler groups should not be allowed to benefit from land seized from Palestinians. Cooper also noted that the Israeli government's condemnations of some of these acts of violence 'ring hollow' in the absence of concrete action to punish them.