Norway seeks to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements

Oslo: The Norwegian government said on Friday it planned to ban all trade with Israeli settlements in the illegally-occupied Palestinian territories.

“Norwegian people and Norwegian companies should not contribute to sustaining illegal settlements.

“The policy of colonisation undermines the possibility of achieving a two-state solution,” the foreign ministry in Oslo said in a statement.

Specifically, the government wants to ban trade in goods produced in Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian lands — Gaza and the West Bank, which includes East Jerusalem.

Oslo also plans to outlaw “the purchase of property in the settlements, the provision of services relating to the construction, renovation, purchase or sale of property in these areas, and the acquisition of commercial enterprises whose head office and production facilities are located in the settlements”, the ministry said.

The government has drafted a bill to this effect, which will be subject to consultations for three months, until September 19.

“We want to ban all commercial activity with these illegal settlements,” Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in the statement.

The bill stresses that Norway will continue trade and other ties with legitimate Palestinian activities on Palestinian land, as well as the provision of humanitarian aid.

“The colonies undermine the very foundations of the Palestinian state,” Barth Eide said.

Noway, which is not a member of the European Union, recognised the state of Palestine in 2024, at the same time as EU members Ireland and Spain did.

Ireland is pushing for the 27-nation EU to ban all trade with Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories.

The bloc said last week it would look at options for “restricting” trade with the illegal settlements.

But there remains no consensus among the bloc’s member states to take further steps against Israel, such as ending the EU-Israel preferential trade agreement.

Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank face regular violence from Israeli troops and settlers.

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Attacks, many fatal, have spiked since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023.

In the West Bank, rural Palestinian communities are most vulnerable to settler violence, with beatings, damaged crops, cattle theft and arson reported almost daily.

Israel has occupied the Palestinian territories since 1967. Its settlements there are illegal under international law.