The land still belongs to the Lord ~ standing with Israel in the Word, not with every policy in Tel Aviv

Now folks, I want us to look at something that has been troubling many of the Lord’s people this week. And I want us to look at it the way we always try to look at things here, not first through the newspaper, but through the Word of God.

You see, the government in London has announced a ban on goods coming from Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. They call those towns “settlements.” They speak of “ethnic cleansing.” They say this is a new approach. President Herzog of Israel has answered that it is a grave miscalculation, and that it will fall on the wrong side of history. He has also said it will hurt Palestinian workers who earn their living in those same places.

Well, that is the news. Now let us open the Book.

The Promise Has Not Been Cancelled

After Lot went his way toward Sodom, the Lord said to Abram, “For all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever” (Genesis 13:15, NKJV). Forever is a long time. The Lord did not say, “Until the Foreign Office in London draws a new map.”

In the Word, we know that Abraham bought the cave of Machpelah in Hebron with four hundred shekels of silver, he had weighed it out in the presence of the sons of Heth (Genesis 23). That was not printed in the United Nations paper. That was a deed. Jacob, dying down in Egypt, made his boys swear they would carry his bones back to that same cave.

Paul asked the question the church keeps wanting to ask again: “Has God cast away His people? Certainly not!” (Romans 11:1). And then he said something we must not skip over: “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). Calvary did not tear up Abraham’s title. Calvary fulfilled the promise that through Abraham’s Seed all nations would be blessed.

“I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you” (Genesis 12:3). The Lord has not changed His mind. Governments change their mind every Tuesday. God does not.

We Do Not Bless What God Calls Sin

Now listen carefully, because some folks will twist this. Standing with the Jewish people, and with the land God named, is not the same thing as standing with every decision that comes out of the Knesset.

The Lord said, “You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13). That is true in Jerusalem. That is true in Glasgow. We cannot bless the shedding of innocent blood in the womb and then pretend we are walking in the light.

And we cannot bless the pride parades. Tel Aviv may advertise itself as the gay capital of that part of the world. The Scripture has another word for it. Romans chapter one has not been revised by a city council. Sodom is still in the Book.

So we say both things in the same breath. The land is the Lord’s, and He gave it to Abraham’s seed. And the present government of Israel, like every other government under heaven, will give an account for blood and for sexual rebellion. If we flatten those two truths into one slogan, we have stopped being Bible people.

What London Has Done

This is not yet a total boycott of the State of Israel. They keep saying that. The trade between Britain and Israel is still in the region of six billion pounds a year. Goods from those towns in Judea and Samaria are only a slice of it.

But folks, it is the language that ought to grieve us. When a British foreign secretary uses the words “ethnic cleansing” about Jews living in Hebron, the city where Abraham paid for a grave, the city where David was first anointed king, he is not merely doing politics. He is putting a new caption on the old story.

Jake Wallis Simons has reminded the country what sits on the other side of that ledger. Medicines. Tank protection. Drones built here to Israeli design. Intelligence that has saved British lives. A friend does not sanction his friend in the middle of a war of survival in order to quiet a noisy corner of his own party.

What the Law Actually Says

This is where we need to slow down and listen to someone who has done the homework. Natasha Hausdorff is a barrister. She is Legal Director of the UKLFI Charitable Trust. She works with the very texts London likes to quote.

She has said that the government’s line on the E1 area, and on so-called occupied territory, misstates international law. Under the Oslo Accords, which Britain endorsed, Israel retained administration of Area C. You cannot throw Oslo in the bin on a Tuesday and still claim you are the champion of international law.

She has pointed us to Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention. That article concerns a state transferring its civilian population. It is not a command that Britain must treat every private crate of dates from a Jewish farmer in Samaria as contraband.

She has said that the International Court of Justice opinion of 2024 is an advisory opinion. It is not a statute that rewrites British trade law overnight. And the UKLFI briefing warned the government that a ban of this kind could breach Britain’s own binding obligations, including trade agreements, and the duty not to discriminate in the way goods are treated.

I caught Natasha Hausdorff on Mike Graham. She went after Ed Miliband for repeating “stories” about Israel blocking medicine. The aid figures were already out. COGAT had been posting the tonnage. She said that kind of tale — Jews harming children — is the old blood libel in new clothes. Hard words. She is a barrister. She is allowed to name a groove that is centuries old.

You do not have to agree with every paper she files. You do need to let the documents speak before the news slogan does.

Boycotts Have a Memory

The Jewish people remember what boycotts lead to, that is not a nervous imagination, that is sadly Europe’s own history.

Britain once fought the Nazis when Jewish lives were on the line. This week the same state is teaching its shops to treat dates and olive oil from Jewish towns in the biblical heartland as unclean. The left will not stop at a “symbolic” ban. They never do. And the people who will feel it first include Palestinian labourers who clock in on those farms and building sites. Herzog said that out loud. Believe him on that point even if you disagree with him on others.

And we should say the quiet bit where Britain froze UNRWA after October 7, when staff were named in that sick massacre upon innocent people and families. Then David Lammy (what was he thinking) put the money back. The corrupt UN looked at nineteen workers and said nine may have taken part; those nine were sacked.

Later a US inspector-general file sent more than a hundred current or former UNRWA people for blacklisting, some took part on that day itself, with some for Hamas’s military wing.

Israel’s figure is harsher: about 12 percent of the Gaza payroll tied to Hamas or Islamic Jihad. So here we are.

London slaps a ban on Jewish produce from Samaria, and still writes cheques to an agency that could not keep killers off the staff list. Call that what you like. I will not call it righteousness.

What God Is Still Doing with Israel

Now I want to lift your eyes. Some Jewish people are coming to faith in Jesus right now. We thank God for every one. The gospel is “for the Jew first and also for the Greek” (Romans 1:16). We owe them the Messiah. We do not owe them a lecture from Whitehall.

And the prophets are not finished. Zechariah said the Lord will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling, and that they will look upon Him whom they have pierced (Zechariah 12:2–10). Paul said a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, “and so all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25–26).

In the time of trouble that is coming, the great story will not be Britain’s seat at the United Nations. The great story will be Israel turning to her King. That is why we do not treat the land as a chip on the table. The covenant is not a metaphor. Neither is the tribulation.

What We Do

Tell the truth, even when it costs. Bless the people God said He would bless. Nobody should rewrite October 7 just to hold a seat in the Commons. And Hebron is not stolen ground — Abraham weighed out the silver for that field in front of witnesses. I pray for the believers in Israel who will not make peace with Hamas and will not bless the pride march either. I pray Arab men and women meet that same Jesus. Psalm 122 still stands. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Hebron is inside that prayer. “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you” (Psalm 122:6).

Shall We Pray

Father, we come before you, we thank You that You are the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You are a covenant keeping God, that when nations break their word. Forgive Britain where we have cursed what You have blessed. Have mercy on Jewish families in Judea and Samaria.

Lord, have mercy on Palestinian families who need work and importantly who need the Saviour. Expose the lie. Restrain the bloodshed. Turn many in Israel to Yeshua before the day of trouble. Keep us from two ditches, from hating the Jew, and from blessing sin because it flies a blue and white flag.

Give our leaders a fear of the documents they cite, not only a love of the cameras they face. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

A note for readers.  The figures on trade, on UNRWA, and on the statement in Parliament are from this week’s announcement and from the official probes already published. Those numbers will move. The verses will not. Yishai Fleisher, the spokesman for the Jewish community in Hebron, has not, at the time of writing, issued a specific word on this latest ban. We will not put words in his mouth but will post his stance later.