Arab and Muslim countries salute British settlement sanctions

Na statement, the Foreign Ministers of the eight countries declared “to welcome the UK Government’s decision to ban imports of illegal Israeli settlements into occupied Palestinian territory”, also welcoming the other Western countries which are imposing restrictions on trade with those settlements.

After 12 Western countries, including Portugal, have announced the intention or reaffirmed the decision to block trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, it remains to know how they will implement this measure, which will particularly affect an agricultural sector based on the cultivation of occupied Palestinian territory.

After Israel’s abrupt reaction — which took the United Kingdom as a scapegoat and announced the closure of its consulate in Jerusalem — several of these countries (Sweden, Denmark and Finland) have today declared to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that they will only apply such measures if they fall within a decision of the whole of the European Union (EU).

Others, such as the United Kingdom, France and Canada, have already warned on Tuesday that they intend to implement them at national level, as did Spain, which banned imports of products from Israeli settlements in September 2025.

“The EU is Israel’s main trading partner, with 31.7% of Israel’s total trade in goods with the rest of the world in 2025,” says the European Commission’s website.

Only 5% of this amount comes from the settlements with which Israel illegally occupies territory in the West Bank, according to data from the Israeli Producers Association cited by Haaretz.

According to a spokesperson from the Israeli Ministry of Economics, quoted by the Spanish news agency EFE, dozens of Israeli companies export settlement products to other countries; these products are mainly fresh foods, dates, ready-to-eat salads and irrigation equipment.

Israeli settlers maintain extensive fruit plantations in the Jordan Valley (the origin of one of the main export products: dates), but also vineyards and wineries elsewhere in the Palestinian enclave, as well as industrial parks, among other facilities.

According to a study by the Israeli non-governmental organisation WhoProfits and the Belgian CIDSE group, about 45 companies producing in settlements export to the European Union.

Of these, 11 concentrate on agricultural products, although the group also includes food and beverage companies, construction, wastewater treatment and plastics, as well as a significant number of wineries.

Some of the best known exporters providing dates for European supermarkets are Hadiklaim, Field Producer Marketing Ltd. and Agrexco Carmel, which obtain their products in the Jordan Valley on the eastern border of the West Bank.

These products are exported to the EU under a regime different from that applied to those produced in Israeli territory, as they are not covered by the trade agreement between European countries and Israel and are therefore subject to higher customs tariffs.

The EU therefore demands that Israel label them to indicate that they do not originate in Israeli territory.

In the case of the United Kingdom, Foreign Minister Ed Miliband announced the ban on imports of goods from settlements and went further, imposing sanctions on British companies providing services for the expansion of settlements, such as construction companies.

The UN Human Rights Office identified three British companies on a June 2023 list of companies with activities linked to Israeli settlements.

One of these companies managed tourist accommodation in the settlements and announced that it would close this activity, while the other two work in the construction sector.

For the time being, the United Kingdom has not provided specific details on which companies will be affected or on the monetary value of imports from settlements, although it has made it clear that the measure will only enter into force within six to nine months.