OSLO, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), Norway and 11 Western countries are planning restrictions and sanctions on Israeli settlement products, with potential future laws criminalizing trade with companies operating in the occupied West Bank.
Individuals or companies found trading with Israeli settlements could face up to three years in prison under the proposed Norwegian trade restrictions bill, expected by Norway’s foreign minister Espen Barth Eide to be passed in the fall.
According to the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom, the Norwegian government, along with other Western countries, is pushing for unprecedented legislation that would impose penalties, including possible prison sentences, on entities and individuals trading in products originating from settlements in the West Bank.
“The arguments have only become stronger because the situation in the West Bank has become even worse,” Eide told the country’s public broadcaster, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). “In addition, so many other countries are doing the same thing that the government has already proposed with this bill.”
Eide told NRK he believed Israel had become “far too accustomed to being able to intimidate Western countries by saying they were anti-Semitic if they criticized Israel for abuses and violations of international law.”
Eide told NRK that the US reaction to the sanctions on Israel announced by European countries was “very restrained, almost somewhat understanding,” which served as a “very strong signal” to Israel about shifting politics.
The 12 nations jointly said that the Israeli government’s actions in the West Bank “damage the possibility of realizing the two-state solution.”
They said that “the situation is deteriorating rapidly against the backdrop of unprecedented levels of settler violence and settlement expansion, including the unacceptable decision to publish tenders for the E1 settlement project.”
In Canada, the punishment for being found trading with Israeli settlements is up to five years under the nation’s Special Economic Measures Act. In Britain, the punishment is up to 10 years, according to The Jerusalem Post website.
