8 September 2026
In a meeting with the UK Foreign Secretary, Ed Miliband on 7 September, Caabu Director Chris Doyle welcomed the news that the UK will ban trade with Israeli settlements. “This very welcome decision is one that should have been taken decades ago, given the long standing international legal consensus that these settlements are illegal. Trading with these settlements should never have been allowed in the first place, built as they are in occupied territory, on the land and resources of Palestinians. It is something Caabu has been demanding for decades.”
The ban also has significant British public support. A Caabu poll conducted by YouGov in early July showed 48% of the British public backed this whilst only 16% opposed. This was backed up by another late August YouGov poll that showed figures of 50% in support and again 16% opposed.
In Parliament, Caabu research determined that 246 MPs have publicly supported such a ban. The Foreign Affairs Committee also recommended the government introduce a ban in a report published in July 2025.
Caabu Chair, Rt Hon Alistair Carmichael MP also welcomed the move: “A UK ban on settlement trade is welcome but the minimum of what is needed in the face of a frenzy of settlement expansion. This sanction requires teeth. Israel has to be held to account for its flagrant violations of international law, and hopefully this is the start.”
Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal and must end its unlawful presence as rapidly as possible, as set out in the ICJ’s advisory opinion in July 2024. The government should make clear today it formally accepts this definitive legal ruling.
Building and expanding Israeli settlements has been the policy of every single Israeli government since 1967. They were able to do this because of the lack of concerted international action and consequences. As a result, thousands of Palestinians were forced from their lands and homes, as settlements were built over the most strategic and valuable areas of the West Bank. Over 100 Palestinian communities have been forced off their land since January 2023. They are facing ethnic cleansing and erasure, and settler violence is off the chart. Violence carried out with brazenness and impunity, backed by the Israeli state. The Palestinian city of Hebron has also been partitioned for the sake of Israeli settlers.
At the same time Israel has deployed a dual legal system where Israeli settlers lived under Israeli civil law whilst Palestinians lived under Israeli military law. This was one of the reasons why Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organisations determined Israel has been guilty of the crime of apartheid.
The British government must back up this action with concrete steps to ensure a proper enforcement measure. Settlement products must not be allowed into the UK misleadingly labelled as Israeli. A ban should include all investments and financial services.
Given the extent of Israeli violations of international law, these may have to be the first of a series of measures. As with other states that have routinely committed war crimes, the UK must be prepared to go further in the event that Israel does not end its settlement enterprise.
Ends...
Notes to editors:
1) For more information or interviews contact Chris Doyle on +44 (0)7968 040281
2) Caabu has demanded action against settlement trade for years. It succeeded albeit temporarily to get Harrods to stop the sale of settlement products in 2002. It also lobbied successfully for the labelling of settlement goods to distinguish them from Israeli goods.
