{"id":93024,"date":"2026-07-13T14:39:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T14:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/93024\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T14:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T14:39:12","slug":"what-is-the-eus-plan-to-cut-trade-with-illegal-israeli-settlements-israel-palestine-conflict-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/93024\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the EU\u2019s plan to cut trade with illegal Israeli settlements? | Israel-Palestine conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Agence France Presse and Reuters<\/p>\n

Published On 13 Jul 202613 Jul 2026<\/p>\n

European Union foreign ministers met in Brussels<\/a> on Monday to discuss whether there is enough support for new measures to curb trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody agrees that the situation in the West Bank is really intolerable,\u201d \u00a0EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said at the start of a meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is happening in the West Bank is actually making it more and more impossible that the two-state solution ever can come into effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here is more about the ongoing EU discussions on Israeli settlements.<\/p>\n

What options are the EU foreign ministers discussing?<\/p>\n

The discussions are based on a confidential paper by the European Commission that floats three different options \u2013 an import licensing system, prohibitive tariffs, or a ban \u2013 an unnamed senior EU diplomat and a European official said, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n

The EU has long struggled to take major decisions on Middle East policy because of deep and long-standing divisions among its 27 member countries, particularly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.<\/p>\n

Diplomats said the debate at a meeting in Brussels on Monday was not expected to yield any concrete decisions, but would help to sound out if there is enough support to move forward.<\/p>\n

Are Israel\u2019s illegal settlements in the West Bank expanding?<\/p>\n

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the territory, excluding east Jerusalem, among some three million Palestinians.<\/p>\n

This month, Israel\u2019s Security Cabinet has approved a plan to establish 13 new settlements<\/a> in the central occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

The number of new settlements has soared recently<\/a>, according to new data from the Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies (MADAR). After averaging approximately eight outposts annually between 2012 and 2022, the number jumped to 32 in 2023, then 62 in 2024, reaching 86 during 2025.<\/p>\n

Nasser Khdour, Middle East assistant research manager at the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), said that 2026 is the deadliest year for settler violence since ACLED began tracking incidents in Palestine a decade ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIncidents have included attacks on Palestinians, property destruction, damage to farming equipment and facilities, tree uprooting, and grazing on Palestinian agricultural land. Other incidents have involved looting, including the theft of equipment, sheep, and crops,\u201d Khdour was quoted as saying on the ACLED website in May.<\/p>\n

What pressure has the EU faced to take measures about this?<\/p>\n

Under pressure for the EU as a whole to take measures, the bloc\u2019s executive last week laid out options to curb trade with settlements, including a ban.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been a lot of asks and requests from the member states regarding the ban of the trade with illegal settlements,\u201d Kallas said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s see if these options that have been provided now will have a stronger push from member states.\u201d<\/p>\n

Belgium\u2019s Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said the options laid out appeared to be more \u201ca bone to gnaw on than a genuine desire to move forward\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are calling for concrete proposals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

There is disagreement in Brussels as to whether that move would need backing from all 27 member states or just a weighted majority.<\/p>\n

Diplomats say that key players Germany and Italy are still undecided on the move.<\/p>\n

What has the EU\u2019s position been so far?<\/p>\n

Several EU countries \u2013 including Spain, the Netherlands, and the Republic of Ireland \u2013 have already imposed their own trade restrictions on Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, considered illegal under international law.<\/p>\n

In May, the\u00a0EU\u00a0imposed sanctions\u00a0on four entities and three individuals over what it described as serious and systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

In a July 2024 advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice said Israel\u2019s occupation of Palestinian territories and\u00a0settlements\u00a0in the West Bank are illegal and that states should take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that help maintain the situation.<\/p>\n

Israeli\u00a0Foreign Minister Gideon Saar last year described a push by some\u00a0European governments to implement the advisory opinion as \u201cshameful\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Agence France Presse and Reuters Published On 13 Jul 202613 Jul 2026 European Union foreign ministers met…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1485,4,15,40,4048,92,115,3240,145,144,172,30,26,49,1766,146,108],"class_list":["post-93024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-europe","tag-belgium","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-explainer","tag-germany","tag-human-rights","tag-ireland","tag-israel","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-italy","tag-middle-east","tag-netherlands","tag-news","tag-occupied-west-bank","tag-palestine","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}