Norwegian government announces consultation on new bill as it steps up policies regarding ‘unlawful’ Israeli activities.
Norway’s government says it plans to ban all trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, and has announced consultation on a proposal for a new bill prohibiting such transactions.
“The Israeli settlements in Palestine are in breach of international law,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide said in a statement on Friday.
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“They contribute to displacement, extreme violence and a situation that makes a peaceful solution impossible. We intend to prohibit trade with the unlawful settlements,” he added.
The Norwegian government wants to ban trade in goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian lands, including Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Regarding real estate, Oslo also plans to outlaw “the purchase of property in the settlements, the provision of services relating to the construction, renovation, purchase or sale of property in these areas, and the acquisition of commercial enterprises whose head office and production facilities are located in the settlements”, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
“The settlements undermine the basis for a Palestinian state. Norwegian citizens and Norwegian companies must not contribute to maintaining this development. With this legislative proposal, the government takes a clear stance and puts forward rules that set firm limits for Norwegian trade and business activities,” Eide added.
Norway, which is not a member of the European Union, recognised the state of Palestine in 2024, at the same time as EU members Ireland and Spain did. The Israeli government lashed out by quickly withdrawing its ambassadors from Oslo, Dublin and Madrid and summoning the Norwegian, Irish and Spanish representatives in Tel Aviv.
Last week, Norway joined five other countries, the UK, Australia, Canada, France and New Zealand in imposing coordinated sanctions targeting networks involved in financing, enabling and carrying out settler violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank
“The settlements and the serious abuses committed by violent settlers are making the situation in the West Bank increasingly untenable. Civilians are being killed, the economy is being strangled, and local communities are being destroyed. This must stop,” added Eide.
The Norwegian government has drafted the bill about the trade ban with Israeli settlements, which is now being circulated for consultations for the next three months, until September 19.
In response to the bill’s announcement, Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory, said, “A small step, the smallest step, but it’s a beginning.”
“Norway still has to answer this: how can a country that champions human rights, allow its vast sovereign wealth fund, one of the largest in the world, to invest in entities linked to an occupation the ICJ has found illegal?”
The rights experts said this in regards to Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund, which owns stakes in 8,700 companies worldwide, including several Israeli companies, although last year, Norway said it was divesting from 11 Israeli companies and that it was continuing to review divesting from more.