Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has proposed a bill to ban trade with Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine, declaring them an impediment to peace.
The Norwegian government said on Friday that it had submitted a bill with legally binding stipulations for consultation. The proposal recommends prohibiting Norwegian citizens and companies from profiting from or supporting Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise.
“The Israeli settlements in Palestine are in violation of international law. They contribute to displacement, extreme violence and a development that makes a peaceful solution impossible. We will prohibit trade with the illegal settlements,” Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in a press release.
The Israeli government has built illegal settlements at a rapid pace, undermining the prospects of a Palestinian state.
The proposal follows a parliamentary resolution and would ban Norwegian exports to, and importation of goods from, Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
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It would also prohibit Norwegians from buying property in the settlements and providing services linked to construction, renovation, the purchase or sale of property there, or acquiring businesses based in, or producing goods or agricultural products in, the settlements.
The government said legitimate Palestinian activities and humanitarian aid would be protected.
“Violations of the law will be punishable,” the government said.
Eide said Norwegian citizens and companies “should not profit from or support activities that contribute to maintaining Israel’s illegal settlement activities in Palestine”.
Situation is ‘untenable’
The move comes as Israeli authorities and settler networks accelerate the colonisation of the occupied West Bank, where Palestinian communities face gradual ethnic cleansing, land theft, home demolitions, movement restrictions and attacks by armed settlers.
Both the United Nations Security Council and the International Court of Justice in The Hague have ruled that the settlements are illegal.
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Norway and several other countries earlier this month imposed sanctions and measures against violent Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
“The settlements and the serious abuses by violent settlers are making the situation in the West Bank increasingly untenable. Civilians are being killed, the economy is being strangled, and local communities are being destroyed. This must end,” said Eide.
Earlier this month, Britain, Canada, France, and Norway announced coordinated sanctions against Israeli networks involved in financing, enabling and carrying out violence in the occupied West Bank.
The measures followed a surge in settler attacks.
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis live in settlements built on Palestinian land Israel captured in the 1967 war. The settlements violate international law and form a central pillar of Israel’s occupation and colonisation of Palestinian territory.
