Norway Opens Consultation on Ban for Trade Tied to Israeli Settlements

Norway advances plans to restrict commerce linked to what it describes as unlawful Israeli settlement activity in occupied Palestinian territory.

Norway’s government has announced plans to prohibit all trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, launching a consultation on draft legislation that would ban such transactions.

“Israeli settlements in Palestine violate international law,” Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in a statement on Friday.

“They contribute to displacement, severe violence and conditions that make a peaceful resolution impossible. We intend to prohibit trade with these unlawful settlements,” he added.

The proposed restrictions would cover goods produced in Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land, including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Norway also intends to ban the purchase of property in settlements, as well as services related to the construction, renovation, purchase or sale of property in those areas. The government also plans to prohibit the acquisition of commercial enterprises headquartered in the settlements or operating production facilities there, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The settlements undermine the foundation for a Palestinian state. Norwegian citizens and Norwegian companies must not contribute to sustaining this development. With this legislative proposal, the government is taking a clear position and establishing firm limits for Norwegian trade and business activity,” Eide said.

Norway, which is not a member of the European Union, recognised the state of Palestine in 2024 alongside Ireland and Spain. Israel responded by withdrawing its ambassadors from Oslo, Dublin and Madrid, and summoning the Norwegian, Irish and Spanish representatives in Tel Aviv.

Last week, Norway joined the UK, Australia, Canada, France and New Zealand in coordinated sanctions targeting networks involved in financing, enabling and carrying out settler violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“The settlements and the serious abuses committed by violent settlers are making the situation in the West Bank increasingly untenable. Civilians are being killed, the economy is being strangled, and local communities are being destroyed. This must stop,” Eide said.

The Norwegian government has drafted the proposed trade ban and is circulating it for consultation over the next three months, until September 19.

Reacting to the announcement, Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory, described the measure as “a small step, the smallest step, but it’s a beginning.”

“Norway still has to answer this: how can a country that champions human rights allow its vast sovereign wealth fund, one of the largest in the world, to invest in entities linked to an occupation the ICJ has found illegal?” she said.

Albanese was referring to Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund, which holds stakes in 8,700 companies worldwide, including several Israeli firms. Last year, Norway said it was divesting from 11 Israeli companies and continuing to review further potential divestments.

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