Norway moves to ban trade in goods from Israeli settlements

OSLO, June 19 (YPA) –Norway’s government announced on Friday that it intends to prohibit its citizens and companies from trading goods produced in Israeli settlements located in the occupied Palestinian territories.

“Norwegian citizens and Norwegian companies must not profit from or support activities that help sustain Israel’s unlawful settlement activity in Palestine,” Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in a statement.

The proposed legislation, which is widely expected to be approved by the Norwegian parliament, would ban both imports and exports of goods originating from Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories.

It also includes a prohibition on real estate transactions linked to those settlements.

The consultation period for the draft bill is set to run until 19 September.

The United Nations has on several occasions deemed Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories illegal.

Several European countries are increasingly moving to restrict or ban products linked to Israeli settlements in response to escalating aggression in the occupied West Bank, including intensified killings and mass arrests by the occupation forces and a surge in settler violence against Palestinian communities.

@E.Y.M