THE Government should immediately ban from UK markets all goods from illegal Israeli settlements, Christian Aid said last week.
A statement was issued last Friday after the publication of an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which concluded that Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are in violation of international law.
The opinion, which is non-binding, represents the first time that the Court has delivered an assessment of the occupation. It was produced in response to a request from the UN General Assembly, in December 2022, for an advisory opinion on the “legal consequences arising from the policies and practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem”.
It states that Israel is under an obligation to “bring an end to its presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible”, and to “cease immediately all new settlement activities and to evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory”. It should also provide “reparation for the damage caused to all natural or legal persons concerned”. Among the Israel practices outlined are forcible evictions, extensive house demolitions, and restrictions on residence and movement, and a failure to prevent or to punish violence by settlers. Palestinians in the occupied territories are subject, it says, to “systemic discrimination”.
The opinion says that other states have an obligation “not to recognise as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence” of Israel, and “not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by the continued presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”. The United Nations, and especially the General Assembly and the Security Council, “should consider the precise modalities and further action required to bring to an end as rapidly as possible the unlawful presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
In response, Christian Aid’s Programme Manager for the Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Jule Mehigan, said: “The new UK Government must get serious about the application of international humanitarian law without fear or favour. They should immediately ban from UK markets all goods from illegal Israeli settlements.
“They must also review all agreements and arms exports licenses for trade with Israel straight away to ensure the UK is not complicit in this illegal situation.
“With more than 38,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza over the last nine months, the ICJ opinion has laid bare a major driver of endless cycles of violence across occupied Palestinian territory. Taking action now to ensure accountability will contribute to the foundations for a just peace, for Palestinians and Israelis alike.”
The Bishop of Southwark, the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, wrote on the social-media platform X in response to the opinion: “Israel’s legitimate need for security must not be at the expense of the land and livelihood of the Palestinian people.”
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, rejected the Court’s conclusions. “The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land — not in our eternal capital Jerusalem, not in the land of our ancestors in Judea and Samaria,” he said. “No false decision in The Hague will distort this historical truth, just as the legality of Israeli settlement in all the territories of our homeland cannot be contested.”
The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the Golan Heights, have been occupied by Israel since 1967. Last year, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that 700,000 Israeli settlers were living illegally in the occupied West Bank, residing in 279 settlements, at least 147 of which were outposts, illegal even under Israeli domestic law.
The official position of the UK Government is that it will not recognise any changes to the pre-1967 borders, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties. Since 2005, products produced in Israeli settlements located within the territories occupied by Israel since 1967 are not entitled to benefit from preferential tariff treatment on entry into the UK. Guidance produced in 2009 states that produce originating from such settlements should be specifically labelled as such.
A statement from the Foreign Office last Friday said that the UK Government was “carefully considering before responding” to the ICJ opinion. “The Foreign Secretary was clear on his visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories earlier this week that the UK is strongly opposed to the expansion of illegal settlements and rising settler violence. This Government is committed to a negotiated two-state solution which can deliver a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state.”
On his return from the region last week, the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, told the House of Commons: “Settlement expansion and settler violence have reached record levels. The Israeli Government have seized more of the West Bank in 2024 than in the past 20 years. That is completely unacceptable. This Government will challenge those who undermine a two-state solution.”
He confirmed that the Government was overturning the suspension of funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) (News, 29 January), and that he had commissioned a “comprehensive review of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law”. He called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and the release of all hostages. “I recognise the pain and anguish felt on all sides,” he concluded. “It makes me only more determined to do all I can in this office to advance the cause of peace.”
On Wednesday, a letter calling for an end to all arms flows into the conflict zone, and condemning the seizure of land in the West Bank, was published, signed by more than 200 Christian leaders, who included the Bishops of Southwark, Chelmsford, Kingston, Worcester, Liverpool, Huntingdon, and Gloucester.
“Nonviolent resistance to prolonged occupation has been met with unjustified violence by Israel and has been delegitimized by ill-considered condemnation from parts of the international community,” it said. “This has contributed to a growing belief among many Palestinians in the West Bank that armed resistance is both legitimate and effective, even inevitable. . . On all sides of this conflict, belief in the possibility of peace and the commitment to non-violent approaches is waning. The window for constructive dialogue between combatant parties is rapidly closing.”