Israeli channel says Europeans could face up to 10 years in prison for trade with settlements

European countries are moving toward prison sentences that could be as long as 10 years for individuals and companies involved in trade with Israeli illegal settlements built on occupied Palestinian land, Israeli media reported.

Israel’s Channel 7 said Norway is preparing a legal framework to boycott settlement products, including prison sentences of up to three years for individuals or companies dealing with them.

The channel quoted Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide as saying he expected his country’s parliament to approve the draft law in its current form.

“Yes, I really think so, and the arguments have become stronger as the situation in the West Bank has worsened,” Eide said in response to a question on the issue.

“There are many other countries that will do the same thing that the government has already proposed through this law,” he added.

According to the channel, the Netherlands is also working on a similar law, under which the penalty could be as long as six years in prison.

A Dutch decision banning the import, purchase or sale of goods from illegal settlements is expected to take effect on Sept. 22, it said.

Channel 7 added that in Britain, the penalty for commercial dealings with settlements could reach up to 10 years in prison.

The moves come after 12 Western countries announced on Tuesday their intention to impose restrictions on trade with Israeli settlements.

The countries are France, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

These 12 countries called on Israel to immediately halt settlement expansion and violence by occupiers.

In a joint statement, they said the measures aim to protect the two-state solution, reject the annexation of Palestinian land and forced displacement, and ensure accountability for those responsible for violence.

The announcement followed an Israeli decision to issue tenders for the construction of around 1,200 settlement units in the E1 area.

The decision drew international criticism because of its potential impact on territorial contiguity between parts of the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

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On Wednesday, French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux said in a statement that France supports applying a ban on trade with Israeli illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territory at the EU level.

Amnesty International said in a statement that the decision by Britain and 11 other countries to ban trade with Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory was a necessary step, but one that came too late.

Palestinian position

Earlier, Fatah Central Committee member Mohammad Shtayyeh told Anadolu that the announcement by the 12 countries of their intention to restrict settlement trade was an “important step.”

Shtayyeh said what is needed is a move from boycotting illegal settlement goods to taking measures against the “settlement project” and the state that sponsors it.

“Israel has become isolated before those who created it, protected it and defend it,” he said.

Israeli media previously reported that some products manufactured in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank were presented as being produced inside Israel’s 1948 borders to bypass similar European bans.

The Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth described Wednesday’s announcement by the 12 countries as a “diplomatic setback and a resounding failure” for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Netanyahu’s government boasts that since its formation in late 2022, it has approved the establishment of 104 new illegal settlements and 160 agricultural settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank.

The UN considers the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, occupied Palestinian territory and says Israeli settlements there are illegal under international law.

Palestinians warn that Israel is paving the way for the formal annexation of the West Bank through settlement expansion and attacks by the army and occupiers, thereby undermining the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state.

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