Britain has announced a ban on imports of goods produced in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank as part of a wider package of measures targeting expanding Israeli settlements and intensifying settler pogroms against the Palestinians. In a speech to Parliament, UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband dialled up the rhetoric compared with previous British governments, accusing Israel of carrying out “ethnic cleansing” in Palestine and reaffirming the UK’s longstanding position that Israeli settlements across the occupied West Bank are “unlawful”. But beyond the language of the announcement, what will the measures materially change?
What percentage of Britain’s total trade with Israel is sourced from the illegal settlements? Also, how will officials distinguish between goods produced inside Israel, those from the settlements, and Palestinian goods in the occupied territory? And could the government’s promise to target companies profiting from settlements ultimately force it to take action against companies to which it has awarded billions of pounds in public contracts?
The government has outlined five measures: Banning the import of goods from illegal Israeli settlements into the UK; taking action on services by creating new designation powers to target individuals and companies that support, facilitate or profit from illegal settlement activity; banning the advertising or promotion of land and property in illegal settlements; strengthening the UK’s existing global human rights sanctions regime to target those responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law, including in Palestine; using that regime to sanction several extremist settlers who have supported or incited pogroms against Palestinian communities. On the surface, the first measure is straightforward, and it outlines that goods produced in Israeli settlements will no longer be allowed into Britain. But to figure out how much trade that will actually stop is considerably more difficult.
First, this is not a ban on trade with Israel. The UK has a free-trade agreement with Israel, and that trading relationship is set to continue. Trade in goods and services between the two countries totalled about £6bn ($8.1bn) in 2025, according to UK government figures.
The new ban applies specifically to goods imported from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory. So how much are those imports worth? The government itself acknowledges that it is “difficult to obtain accurate figures for UK trade” with Israeli settlements.
Al Jazeera asked the British government how much the UK imports specifically from Israeli settlements, but did not receive a response by the time of publication of this article. Official UK trade statistics distinguish between trade with Israel and trade with Palestine. But they do not distinguish between goods produced by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and those produced by Israeli settlers living in the same territory.
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