EU Foreign Ministers to Discuss Trade Options on Israeli Settlements, No Decision Expected for Months

EU foreign ministers will meet in Brussels on Monday to discuss a possible ban on imports from Israeli settlements. The European Commission presented three options in a paper seen by The Guardian: a part or total ban on imports from settlements, high tariffs, or an import licensing system. The paper was first reported by Euronews.

The paper notes that the options can have a substantive impact on the EU-Israel relationship in view of Israel's upcoming election scheduled by 27 October. That vote is the first electoral test for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks. Under the EU-Israel agreement, goods from the occupied Palestinian territories are not entitled to preferential trade terms.

At least 10 member states, including Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain, say the EU has an obligation to end trade with occupied territories following a 2024 International Court of Justice ruling. The ICJ ruling called on Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories as rapidly as possible and found multiple breaches of international law, including activities amounting to apartheid.

It stated that states had to take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation.

More than 100 legal scholars wrote to the European Commission's most senior trade and foreign policy officials this month affirming the EU's international legal obligation to end trade with settlements. Ignacio García Bercero, a former senior trade official at the commission who signed the letter, said a ban is the only effective measure.

A recent investigation by NGO Global Echo found that one in six shipments contained agricultural products that originated in settlements in occupied Palestinian territory and the Syrian Golan Heights, with at least 42% of those mislabelled as Israeli-grown.