New measures announced by the United Kingdom concerning
Israel’s unlawful occupation of the Palestinian territory
are a potentially seismic shift, UN experts said today,
taking particular note of the UK Government’s recognition
that Palestinians in the West Bank are being subjected to
“ethnic cleansing”.
“The UK’s recognition that
these settlers are supported by the Israeli Government marks
a decisive moment in the global discourse on the occupation
of Palestinian territory and the decades-long dispossession
of the Palestinian people,” the experts said.
On 8
September 2026, 12 States – Canada, Denmark, Finland,
France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal,
Spain, Sweden and the UK – announced bans and other
measures targeting goods from illegal Israeli settlements,
alongside measures by the United Kingdom concerning
settlements constructions, financing and advertising and
commerce, including arms export licences to
Israel.
“This is a long overdue step in the right
direction,” the experts said. “Banning trade with
Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise is a significant
step, and a recognition that settlements are at the heart of
Israel’s unlawful occupation, annexation and the ongoing
dispossession of Palestinians.”
“The fact that the
measures extend beyond settlement goods to activities and
financial services that facilitate settlement expansion is
significant. If implemented comprehensively, they will begin
addressing structures of economic complicity that have for
too long contributed to maintaining and expanding Israel’s
unlawful occupation.”
Advertisement – scroll to continue reading
The experts said the UK’s
formal and public recognition that Israel’s occupation of
Palestinian territory is unlawful is significant. “This
starts to bring the UK more in line with the International
Court of Justice Advisory
Opinion of July 2024, which determined that States are
obliged to refrain from recognising, aiding and assisting in
maintaining Israel’s unlawful presence in the Palestinian
territory.”
“It is about time that all States move
beyond rhetoric and measures against illegal settlers, to
recognising that the entire architecture of occupation that
Israel has built since 1948 is illegal and incompatible with
international law,” the experts said.
They also
welcomed the UK’s acknowledgment that the findings
of the United Nations Independent International Commission
of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including
East Jerusalem and Israel, among others, constitute mounting
evidence of serious violations, and its announced support
for judicial processes – including before the ICJ – to
establish accountability.
“To make good on its
policy shift, the UK must immediately suspend its 2020
Military Cooperation Agreement with Israel and the defence,
security and technological cooperation established through
the 2021 Strategic Partnership, as well as all arms licences
that help to sustain the unlawful occupation,” the experts
said. “This must extend across the United Kingdom’s
relations with Israel, including concrete measures to
immediately ensure that neither public nor private economic
activities contribute to the realisation of the illegal
development of housing units in the ‘E1 belt’, which
will only consolidate Israel’s unlawful presence in the
occupied Palestinian territory.”
They urged States
to do more to address the wider economic, financial,
military and institutional relationships that facilitate and
sustain Israel’s unlawful occupation and allow the
genocide to continue. The experts called on the UK
government and others to undo and redress the repressive
policies enacted against anti-genocide activists as well as
journalists and civil society.
“The most urgent
requirement in this moment is concrete actions to stop the
genocide and dismantle Israel’s apartheid system,” the
experts said. They pointed to Europe’s particular
responsibility to help ensure that Israel complies with
human rights and international legal obligations expected of
every member of the United Nations and the international
community.
“Respect for international law is not
optional and cannot remain declaratory.” the experts said.
“The international community now has an opportunity to
translate the findings of international courts, including
the ICJ and ICC, and other international mechanisms into
meaningful action.”
“The United Kingdom has made a
welcome start. It can now lead the way towards a future
grounded in a decolonised multilateralism, accountability
and respect for international
law.”
Notes:
*The
experts:
- Francesca
Albanese, Special
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the
Palestinian territory occupied since
1967 - Ben Saul,
Special
Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights
and fundamental freedoms while countering
terrorism - Farida
Shaheed, Special
Rapporteur on the right to
education - Michelle Small
(Chair-Rapporteur), Ravindran Daniel, Jovana Jezdimirovic
Ranito, Joana de Deus Pereira, Andrés Macías
Tolosa, Working
Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating
human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of
peoples to
self-determination - Koldo
Casla, Special
Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right
to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to
non-discrimination in this
context - Katarina
Schwarz, Special
Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery and trafficking
in persons - Paula
Gaviria, Special
Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced
persons - Leopoldo Maldonado
Gutiérrez, Special
Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to
freedom of opinion and
expression - Mariângela Batista
Galvão Simão, Special
Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the
highest attainable standard of physical and mental
health - Sofía Monsalve
Suárez, Special
Rapporteur on the right to
food - Gina Romero, Special
Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and
of association - Nicolas
Levrat, Special
Rapporteur on minority issues - Pau
Pérez Sales, Special
Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment - George
Katrougalos, Independent
Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable
international order - Zaina
Jallad, Special
Rapporteur on unilateral coercive
measures
