A coalition of over 80 NGOs has launched a campaign urging European countries to stop all commercial or investment activities related to Israel’s settlements in Palestinian territories. Groups like French supermarket giant Carrefour stand accused of directly or indirectly "enabling the humanitarian crisis" driven by Israel’s prolonged occupation.
The 84 NGOs, which include Oxfam, Amnesty International, the Human Rights League, and the Platform of French NGOs for Palestine, on Monday launched a campaign calling on states – particularly members of the European Union and the United Kingdom – to ban all commercial or investment activities related to Israel’s settlements.
The European Union is Israel's largest trading partner, accounting for approximately 32 percent of total merchandise trade, or approximately €42 billion annually.
The campaign also calls for a ban on financial institutions providing loans to companies involved in projects within the settlements.
All of Israel's settlements in the West Bank, occupied since 1967, are considered illegal under international law, regardless of whether they have Israeli planning permission.
Widespread poverty, suffering
According to Oxfam, Israel’s settlement project "has fragmented the West Bank and destroyed the Palestinian economy, resulting in widespread poverty and suffering".
In a report published Monday, the NGOs singled out a handful of specific companies, including Carrefour France, which is accused of being "directly involved in the illegal settlements by allowing the sale of its products there".
The supermarket chain signed a franchise agreement in 2022 with Electra Consumer Products and its subsidiary Yenot Bitan, which has "at least nine" stores in the settlements.
Carrefour told French public radio France Inter that the franchise agreement "excludes any stores located in the occupied territories."
British equipment manufacturer JCB is accused of delivering machinery which is used both to destroy Palestinian homes and crops and to build illegal settlements, according to the NGOs.
The Spanish travel company eDreams-Opodo, the German group TUI, Siemens, Danish shipping company Maersk, and Barclays Bank were also called out over their partnerships, transport services, or financial activities linked to Israeli settlements.
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The NGOs note that since being informed of the report, a few companies have changed their practices, including Opodo-eDreams and Maersk.
Currently products originating from the settlements may be imported into Europe, but do not benefit from the preferential tariffs of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and since an EU court ruling in 2019, they must be labelled as originating from Israeli settlements.
The NGOs cite a landmark advisory opinion issued by the European Court of Justice in July 2024 in which it considers member states obligated "to abstain from entering into economic or trade dealings with Israel concerning the Occupied Palestinian Territory" and required "to take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory".
The NGOs' report follows a previous submission to the UN Human Rights Council in July by the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.
More settlement plans
Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Israel's plans to expand its settlements.
Speaking at a signing ceremony for a major settlement project in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, he vowed that there would be "no Palestinian state."
Israel has long had ambitions to build on the roughly 12 square kilometre tract of land known as E1, but the plan had been stalled for years in the face of international opposition.
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The site sits between Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, near routes connecting the north and south of the Palestinian territory.
Last month, Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich backed plans to build around 3,400 homes on the ultra-sensitive parcel of land.
His announcement drew condemnation, with UN chief Antonio Guterres saying the settlement would effectively cleave the West Bank in two and pose an "existential threat" to a contiguous Palestinian state.
Excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, the West Bank is home to around three million Palestinians, as well as about 500,000 Israeli settlers.
