Netherlands to suspend all trade with illegal Israeli settlements in occupied West Bank, Golan Heights
Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten announced on 22 May that his country will suspend all trade in goods originating from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories and the Syrian Golan Heights.
The decision, approved in principle by the Council of Ministers, aims to block Dutch economic activity from contributing to any illegal settlement expansion and occupation practices.
Jetten said the measure is intended to “prevent Dutch society from contributing, through our economic activities, to illegal occupation and the maintenance of illegal settlements,” according to his press conference.
The proposed framework sets an initial validity period of three years and covers imports as well as the facilitation of commercial trade, involving illegal settlement goods, with Dutch companies operating abroad also being required to comply with the restrictions.
In parallel, foreign affairs and trade ministers Tom Berendsen and Sjoerd Sjoerdsma expressed “enormous concern” in a letter to the House of Representatives.
They stated that “illegal settlements and excessive violence by settlers are causing a continuous deterioration of the situation, which is moving a two-state solution further and further away.”
The Dutch government is also preparing additional sanctions targeting both violent Israeli settlers and Palestinian armed factions, including Hamas, as part of a wider response to rising tensions in the region.
A report by Palestine’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC) called 2025 a “year of bloodshed” in the occupied West Bank, recording over 23,800 attacks by Israeli army forces and illegal settlers against Palestinian civilians.
The state-backed attacks included assaults on individuals, agricultural land, and property, with the majority carried out by the Israeli army.
The report said 14 Palestinians were killed, and around 35,000 trees were destroyed or uprooted, adding that settlers caused hundreds of fires and widespread property damage throughout the occupied territory
The report went on to say that settlement expansion and land confiscation continued to intensify throughout 2025 without pause, while military operations led to mass displacement in several refugee camps.
In early 2026, Israel’s Shin Bet reclassified settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank from “terror attacks” to “serious incidents,” limiting what counts as terrorism to cases with a clear intent to kill and reducing investigative priority for such cases.