More than 80 civil society organisations are launching an international campaign calling for a ban on trade with illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).
The campaign’s launch marks the release of a new report, Trading with Illegal Settlements: How Foreign States and Corporations Enable Israel’s Illegal Settlement Enterprise, which documents how multinational corporations and financial institutions are involved in sustaining Israel’s illegal settlement economy.
The report and campaign target settlement trade specifically because of Israel’s ongoing and escalating oppression of Palestinians in the West Bank including East Jerusalem, fragmentation of its economy, and undermining the viability of a future Palestinian State. Ending trade with settlements is a necessary step to uphold human rights, protect Palestinian livelihoods, stop Israel’s settlement expansion, and end the unlawful occupation.
On 19 July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) outlined specific obligations for third states, including that states must not aid or assist in the maintenance of Israel’s unlawful occupation of the oPt and must “take steps to prevent trade or investment relations” that sustain it. Yet, states continue allowing trade with Israeli settlements and are failing to meet their international legal obligations and contributing to the dispossession of Palestinians and the destruction of the Palestinian economy.
Continued trade with illegal Israeli settlements is incompatible with international law. Governments that permit such trade are complicit in sustaining Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise and its prolonged occupation.
We call on the EU to explicitly ban trade with illegal settlements, including the provision of services and investments. Israeli exporters must determine the origins of goods and be held accountable for false claims. Banks and financial institutions should be barred from providing loans and credit to settlement-based corporations that fund settlement projects.
Banning settlement trade is a mechanism to uphold international law, protect Palestinian livelihoods, halt and reverse Israel’s settlement expansion, and end its unlawful occupation.