{"id":501442,"date":"2026-06-19T20:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T20:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/501442\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T20:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T20:28:09","slug":"norway-seeks-to-ban-trade-with-illegal-israeli-settlements-in-palestine-israel-palestine-conflict-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/501442\/","title":{"rendered":"Norway seeks to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine | Israel-Palestine conflict News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"article__subhead\">Norwegian government announces consultation on new bill as it steps up policies regarding \u2018unlawful\u2019 Israeli activities.<\/p>\n<p>Norway\u2019s government says it plans to ban all trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, and has announced consultation on a proposal for a new bill prohibiting such transactions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Israeli settlements in Palestine are in breach of international law,\u201d Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide said in a statement on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey contribute to displacement, extreme violence and a situation that makes a peaceful solution impossible. We intend to prohibit trade with the unlawful settlements,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>The Norwegian government wants to ban trade in goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian lands, including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding real estate, Oslo also plans to outlaw \u201cthe purchase of property in the settlements, the provision of services relating to the construction, renovation, purchase or sale of property in these areas, and the acquisition of commercial enterprises whose head office and production facilities are located in the settlements\u201d, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe settlements undermine the basis for a Palestinian state. Norwegian citizens and Norwegian companies must not contribute to maintaining this development. With this legislative proposal, the government takes a clear stance and puts forward rules that set firm limits for Norwegian trade and business activities,\u201d Eide added.<\/p>\n<p>Norway, which is not a member of the European Union, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2024\/5\/24\/whats-behind-norways-recognition-of-palestinian-statehood\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">recognised the state of Palestine<\/a> in 2024, at the same time as EU members Ireland and Spain did. The Israeli government lashed out by quickly withdrawing its ambassadors from Oslo, Dublin and Madrid and summoning the Norwegian, Irish and Spanish representatives in Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Norway joined five other countries, the UK, Australia, Canada, France and New Zealand in imposing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/9\/six-countries-sanction-networks-enabling-settler-violence-in-west-bank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">coordinated sanctions<\/a> targeting networks involved in financing, enabling and carrying out settler violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe 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,\u201d added Eide.<\/p>\n<p>The Norwegian government has drafted the bill about the trade ban with Israeli settlements, which is now being circulated for consultations for the next three months, until September 19.<\/p>\n<p>In response to the bill\u2019s announcement, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/5\/28\/us-returns-palestinian-rights-expert-francesca-albanese-to-sanctions-list\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Francesca Albanese<\/a>, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory, said, \u201cA small step, the smallest step, but it\u2019s a beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNorway 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?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The rights experts said this in regards to Norway\u2019s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund, which owns stakes in 8,700 companies worldwide, including several Israeli companies, although <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/8\/11\/norway-wealth-fund-divests-stakes-in-several-israeli-companies\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">last year<\/a>,\u00a0 Norway said it was divesting from 11 Israeli companies and that it was continuing to review divesting from more.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-arc-image-770 wp-image-4592644\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/reuters_6a0f753a-1779397946.jpg\" alt=\"FILE PHOTO: Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, attends a news conference during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 24, 2026. REUTERS\/Denis Balibouse\/File Photo\" fetchpriority=\"low\"\/>Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, said Norway\u2019s bill was a \u2018small step, but it\u2019s a beginning.\u2019 [File: Denis Balibouse\/Reuters]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Norwegian government announces consultation on new bill as it steps up policies regarding \u2018unlawful\u2019 Israeli activities. Norway\u2019s government&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,44,47,43,45,48],"class_list":["post-501442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-occupied-west-bank","tag-palestine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}