Norway moves to criminalise trade with Israeli settlements

Norway is preparing legislation to criminalise trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, after the European country announced plans to pressure Israel over military and settler violence in the occupied Palestinian territory.

According to Norway’s Foreign Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide, individuals found trading with Israeli settlements could face up to three years in prison under the proposed trade restrictions bill, which the government expects to pass this autumn.

Speaking to the N**orwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), Eide said the consultation period for the bill would close on 19 September.

“The arguments have only become stronger because the situation in the West Bank has become even worse,” Eide told NRK. “In addition, so many other countries are doing the same thing that the government has already proposed with this bill.”

He said Israel had become “far too accustomed to being able to intimidate Western countries by saying they were antisemitic if they criticized Israel for abuses and violations of international law.”

“Now the Teflon coating that Israel has had in many ways is gone.”

Eide also said the US response to sanctions announced by European countries had been “very restrained, almost somewhat understanding”, which he described as a “very strong signal” to Israel that political attitudes were changing.

His comments come after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio responded to the UK’s sanctions against Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying Washington shared “the goal of stability” and did not “want to see some uptick in violence… in the West Bank”.

**Political move **

Despite the proposed restrictions, the *NRK *report noted that trade between Norway and Israeli settlements is relatively limited and that the measures are primarily political in nature.

“No, the economic volume is not particularly large,” Eide told the broadcaster. “The relevant goods include, for example, wine and some agricultural products,” as well as goods and materials connected to construction and building in the settlements.

“If the largest countries do not stand up for human rights, and international law, then the rest of us will have to do it,” Eide said.

Eide said the proposed legislation would also cover Palestinian East Jerusalem, which Israel illegally occupied in 1967 before annexing it in 1980.

According to the* Times of Israel*, Israel’s Embassy in Oslo criticised the legislation, describing the “proposal to criminalize trade” as the “latest example of the Norwegian foreign minister’s obsessive anti-Israel activism on the global stage”.

Last week, 12 countries, including Norway, confirmed their intention to introduce national restrictions on trade in goods from Israeli settlements.

In a joint statement, the countries said actions by the Israeli government in the West Bank “damage the possibility of realizing the two-state solution”.

They added that “the situation is deteriorating rapidly against the backdrop of unprecedented levels of settler violence and settlement expansion, including the unacceptable decision to publish tenders for the E1 settlement project.”

Norway recognised a Palestinian state in May 2024, amid global outrage over Israel genocidal war in Gaza.

Israeli attacks have escalated across the occupied West Bank since the Gaza war began in October 2023.

At least 1,109 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to Palestinian official figures.

Settler attacks against Palestinians have also increased, often with little or no legal consequence.