Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion of 19 July 2024 on Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories as it pertains to trade with Israeli Settlements.

The ICJ’s Advisory Opinion of July 2024 contains important findings, many of which are already government policy and align with the UK’s views that the Israeli occupation of Palestine is illegal.

The UK government does not recognise illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine (previously the ‘Occupied Palestinian Territories’ or OPTs) and strongly advise UK businesses and citizens against conducting any economic activities in settlements. We also ensure that we do not enter treaty relations nor economic and trade dealings with Israel that include occupied Palestinian territory, and all our licensed exports to Israel are rigorously assessed against the Strategic Exports Licensing Criteria.

Under our existing free trade agreement with Israel, the UK excludes illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine from the scope of the agreement. Therefore, products from the illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine cannot avail of preferential rates under the FTA and are subject to MFN trade instead.

We have also taken action to tackle settler violence and announced four packages of sanctions targeting organisations and individuals involved in financing, enabling and carrying out settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Settlements are illegal under international law, damaging to peace efforts, and call into question Israel’s commitment to the two-state solution. We reiterate the call that Israel should end its occupation of Palestine as rapidly as possible. We respect international law and continue to ensure the UK complies with its obligations.