More European countries are calling to ban products from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, despite significant overall trade with Israel. The United Kingdom has announced a ban on the import of all goods produced in Israeli settlements, as stated by Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband in Parliament on September 9, 2026. This decision follows a rise in Israeli settler violence and settlement expansions in the region. The ban is set to take effect within six to nine months and will target exports such as dates, olive oil, and agricultural products. Miliband expressed that he believed the British public does not support the occupation by allowing products from settlements in stores.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice deemed Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory unlawful. Subsequently, the United Nations passed a resolution calling for an end to the occupation within a year. Israel responded by announcing counter-measures, including banning 12 British MPs from entering Israel and closing the British consulate in Jerusalem.
Following Miliband’s announcement, 11 additional countries—Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden—issued a joint statement supporting the two-state solution and indicating intentions to impose restrictions on trade with illegal Israeli settlements. Spain and Ireland had previously announced their own national bans earlier in the year, along with the Netherlands and Belgium.
Aside from Canada and the UK, the other countries considering or implementing bans are members of the European Union. The EU is Israel's largest trading partner, accounting for 31.7 percent of Israel’s total trade in goods in 2025, valued at 43.3 billion euros (approximately $50.4 billion), according to the European Commission. The EU provided 33.1 percent of Israel’s imports (28 billion euros or $32.6 billion) and received 29.4 percent of Israel’s exports (15.3 billion euros or $17.8 billion).
Israel ranks as the EU’s 27th largest trade partner, with Ireland, the Netherlands, and Germany being its largest individual trade partners. A report by Global Echo Litigation Center indicated that approximately 5,900 shipments from Israel were directed to Europe, with over 17 percent containing products from settlements. While specific figures for settlement trade are not available, it is understood to represent a small portion of total EU-Israel trade, suggesting the ban’s impact is more symbolic than economic.
The top five European trading partners with Israel that are enforcing or set to introduce settlement bans include Ireland, the Netherlands, the UK, France, and Spain. In 2025, Ireland-Israel bilateral trade totaled $5.36 billion, making Ireland Israel’s second-largest export market after the United States, primarily in technology sectors like semiconductors. The Netherlands had a bilateral trade total of approximately $4.8 billion in 2025 and is Israel’s largest foreign investor. UK-Israel bilateral trade reached $3.73 billion, while France’s total was $3.62 billion, with a significant portion related to military technology exports. Spain's bilateral trade totaled $2.79 billion, and it announced a ban on imports from illegal Israeli settlements in September 2026.
Israeli settlements are Jewish-only communities established on Palestinian land, deemed illegal under international law as they violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from transferring its population into occupied areas. The number of settlers has increased from about 270,000 in 1993 to between 600,000 and 750,000 today, representing about 10 percent of Israel’s Jewish population living in approximately 250 illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.