Israeli Settlements: Trade Ban

Jeff Smith Excerpts

Thursday 9th July 2026 Commons Chamber

[Jeff Smith (Manchester Withington) (Lab)]

It is not often that I agree with both the hon. Member for Dewsbury and Batley (Iqbal Mohamed) and the Father of the House, the right hon. Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh). The Father of the House said that the whole House should cry out against the situation in the west bank. He is right and, as I look around, I think that is what is happening in the Chamber. I am not sure that anybody, apart from possibly the Front Benchers, is going to disagree with the motion, so brilliantly moved by my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Central (Abtisam Mohamed).

I support a two-state solution, but every day, as the result of illegal settlement expansion, driven by violence and supported by the Netanyahu Government, that only real hope for a sustainable peace in the middle east gets less likely. Every day there are violent attacks on Palestinians in the west bank: homes demolished, farmland seized and roads blocked. Every day Palestinians are blocked from accessing healthcare, water, employment and education—the basics of life—as a result of their inability to move freely across their land. The settlements make the situation more intolerable and intractable every day.

Of course the settlements are a breach of the fourth Geneva convention. They are condemned as illegal by the ICJ, the UN Security Council and the vast majority of member states, including the UK. If we accept that settlements are illegal, we cannot just stop there. Many of my constituents in Manchester Withington have contacted me, calling for the UK to do what international law requires of us: to ensure that our trade policy reflects both our values and our legal obligations, and to do everything we can to stop the Israeli Government’s actions in supporting settler violence. That means, as a bare minimum, a ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

I am not naive enough to think that what the UK does alone will change the Netanyahu Government’s policy, but the international community, working together, has to use every lever we have in this situation. Last year, the ICJ set out its advisory opinion on the situation in the OPT. Governments who are committed to the rule of law should take its conclusions seriously. The court said that states should take steps to prevent trade and investment relations that assist in maintaining the illegal situation created by the occupation and by the settlement enterprise.

[Iqbal Mohamed]

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that this issue is not just about products coming from settlements to the UK, but companies in the UK trading in goods and services in the settlements? Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia are all selling tourism services in the occupied territories.

[Jeff Smith]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point and we should not overlook the role of services—it is not just about goods.

The Government will say, and have said, that it is difficult to enact in practice, but just because something is difficult does not mean we should not attempt to fulfil our obligations. Yes, there will be practical complications about enforcement, but complications are no reason to do nothing. They do not stop us committing to the principle. Then we can work out how we make it work. We have heard a number of examples of how we can make the situation work.

[Joe Morris (Hexham) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for giving way; he is making a very powerful and informed speech, as did my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Central (Abtisam Mohamed). I just want to press him on that point. Is not the important thing now for the Government to commit in principle to a ban on settlement trade? We can agree with our international partners that we should work out the technicalities when possible, but such a commitment would give the public the moral clarity that we are prepared to act in line with our values.

[Jeff Smith]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right and puts it better than I did. We can figure out how to make a ban work once we have committed to the principle, and there are ways of doing it. As we have heard today, the Government already have processes in place to distinguish between goods coming from Israel and the OPT as a result of the processes on preferential access for Israeli goods, and we can build on that experience. We have heard that other countries are already instigating such measures, and we can learn from their experience.

A settlement trade ban is no longer a marginal or unrealistic demand; it is becoming a mainstream response. A ban on trade with settlements would not, on its own, bring peace to Israelis and Palestinians, but it would ensure that Britain is not contributing to an unlawful situation that the world’s highest court has concluded all states have a duty not to support. It would demonstrate that our principles are reflected not only in our words, but in our actions.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jeff Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 18th November 2025 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Jeff Smith (Manchester Withington) (Lab)]

1. What steps Great British Energy is taking to help public services to use more renewable energy.

[The Minister for Energy (Michael Shanks)]

Thanks to the success of the initial scheme, Great British Energy is expanding the roll-out of solar panels for public services. Now, 50 more schools, 60 more NHS sites and 15 military sites will have their bills cut thanks to this Government, transferring money from the pockets of energy companies back into frontline services.

[Jeff Smith]

I warmly welcome the announcement of solar panels at Ladybarn primary school in Withington—it is great news for an excellent school in my patch and good news for the planet. I have also seen good investment in solar panels on hospital buildings in my patch, and we clearly need to scale that up. How can having Great British Energy as a publicly owned company help us to do that?

[Michael Shanks]

I congratulate those at Ladybarn primary school in my hon. Friend’s constituency on receiving solar panels. The benefit for the school is that it can spend more money on the things that are important for improving young people’s learning, rather than on its energy bills. Great British Energy is our idea for a publicly owned energy company—the first in 70 years—that will drive forward investment in the clean power transition and in supply chains, creating jobs across the country and bringing down bills for the public sector, as in these examples in the NHS and at military sites and schools, so that we can invest more in frontline services.