Embrace part of new ‘Stop Trade with Settlements’ campaign
Embrace the Middle East is part of an alliance of more than 80 civil society organisations which today launched a new campaign “Stop Trade with Settlements,” demanding countries ban all trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), including by major multinational companies and financial institutions sustaining the settlement enterprise.
The campaign’s launch marks the release of a new joint report, ‘The Trading with Illegal Settlements: How Foreign States and Corporations Enable Israel’s Illegal Settlement Enterprise’, which documents how multinational corporations and financial institutions are or have been involved in sustaining Israel’s illegal settlement economy.
The report highlights how foreign states and corporations, through ongoing trade with illegal settlements, directly enable the humanitarian crisis driven by Israel’s prolonged occupation.
Over the last four years, Israel has significantly accelerated its settlement activities in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, marking a staggering increase in both settlement construction and land appropriation.
The advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in July 2024 makes it clear: governments allowing trade with the settlement economy are complicit in the maintenance and expansion of illegal Israeli settlements and thus in sustaining Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory.
The report concludes that the need to cease trade with illegal Israeli settlements is firmly rooted in international law and lists actions that states, including the UK, need to take, including:
adopt and implement legislation explicitly banning trade, including services and investment, with settlements.
Revisit and redraft bilateral agreements between Israel to prohibit trade, including the provision of services and investments, with Israeli settlements, which are crucial relations that maintain the illegal occupation.
Bar financial institutions, banks and other corporations headquartered within their jurisdiction from investing with settlement based companies, or in transactions with other companies that assist or maintain Israel’s illegal occupation.