UK moves to ban imports from Israeli settlements and target related firms

In a parliamentary speech, the UK government unveiled a package aimed at Israeli settlement activity, starting with a ban on importing goods produced in illegal West Bank settlements. It also plans to grant authorities powers to designate individuals and firms that support or profit from such settlements, to block advertising of settlement land and to expand existing human-rights sanctions. Trade data show that only about £6 million of UK imports are recorded as coming from the occupied Palestinian territories, representing roughly 0.1% of the £6 billion UK-Israel trade volume, and the actual share from settlements may be smaller.

Customs already uses postcode-based origin checks, but investigations reveal settlement products often enter Europe labelled as Israeli, making detection difficult. The new designation powers could affect firms already awarded UK public contracts, including Motorola Solutions’ Airwave Solutions, Heidelberg Materials, Egis, CAF and Fosun, whose links to settlement projects have been documented. The government has not responded to inquiries about reviewing existing contracts under the new regime.