Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR) strongly welcomes today’s decision by the UK government to legislate for an import ban on goods from illegal settlements, and for sanctions action against companies and individuals that provide services such as construction, infrastructure, financing or real estate that finance and facilitate illegal settlements, as being a fundamental step forward for upholding international law and respecting human rights.
We further welcome the UK government’s official endorsement of the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion of July 2024 that Israel is unlawfully occupying Palestine, and its refusal of all licence applications for arms and other exports that materially contribute to the occupation.
Settlements and their associated infrastructure in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have a devastating and pervasive impact on the human rights of Palestinians. They are the concrete manifestation of the Israeli government’s accelerating policy of annexation and forcible transfer that pose an existential threat to Palestinians and their right to self-determination in Palestine.
LPHR has emphasised in public and private government briefings the urgent imperative for the UK government to uphold international law in response to Israel’s illegal settlement expansion. We clarified that a comprehensive action against settlement trade – covering goods, services and investments that enable settlement-related activity – is anchored in third-party state duties under international law not to recognise, aid or assist internationally wrongful acts.
Today marks long-awaited crucial progress by the UK government in acting to uphold international law by applying accountability consequences for serious violations. We encourage the UK government to now act as rapidly as possible, and to keep under review further lawful options to impose economic costs should Israel’s government maintain its wholly unlawful and destructive actions in Palestine.