End trade with illegal Israeli settlements
Quakers in Britain is backing a new campaign calling on the UK and Ireland to end all trade with illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine.
The new EAPPI UK & Ireland campaign urges states to take tangible steps to hold Israel accountable under international law by banning trade with illegal settlements.
It draws on a World Council of Churches' initiative 'From Condemnation to Consequences' and the global #StopSettlementTrade campaign.
Israel's settlement enterprise - illegal under international law - continues to forcibly displace Palestinians, destroy livelihoods, and restrict access to their land.
It also exposes Palestinians to increasing violence and harassment by Israeli settlers as documented by EAPPI's Ecumenical Accompaniers.
At the end of March this year, the British and Irish governments said they were “appalled" by what they called increasing “settler terror" and “violence by the Israeli security forces [and] settler militias".
But both continue to allow trade which enables the settlement enterprise to thrive, turning Israel's occupation of Palestine into a permanent annexation.
The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) brings people from around the world to the West Bank to serve for three months as human rights monitors.
Over the past eleven days, armed settlers have shot and killed five Palestinians in the West Bank and 2026 is already on track to surpass 2025 as the most violent year for settlers in two decades.
Ecumenical Accompaniers (EAs) accompany the communities bearing the brunt of this violence every day.
Quakers in Britain co-published a report last year alongside 80 civil society organisations revealing how foreign states enable Israel's illegal settlement enterprise.
The report identified the UK as one of Israel's largest trading partners, with bilateral trade worth over £6 billion a year, including commerce with Israeli settlements in Palestine that are illegal under international law.
The campaign urges elected representatives to:
- Adopt legislation explicitly banning UK trade with illegal settlements;
- Require Israeli exporters to prove their goods do not originate in the occupied Palestinian territory before they can enter the UK market;
- Bar financial institutions, banks and other corporations headquartered within UK jurisdiction from investing in settlement-based companies
- Suspend the UK–Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement until Israel complies with its human rights provisions and the ICJ Advisory Opinion of July 2024.