The Norwegian Executive is evaluating new regulations to veto trade relations with Israeli settlements, a measure that could imply prison sentences of up to three years for those who violate it, as confirmed by the Foreign Minister, Espen Barth Eide. The debate occurs in a context of increasing international pressure on Israel due to the expansion of settlements and the increase of attacks by settlers in the West Bank.
Eide has stated in remarks to the NRK broadcaster that the deadline to receive contributions on the legal text ends on September 19. He has also expressed that he hopes the Parliament will give the green light to the proposal during the autumn, although a specific date for the vote has not yet been set.
"I believe so. The arguments have only become stronger because the situation in the West Bank has become even worse," he indicated, before emphasizing that "other countries are doing the same as the Government (of Norway) has proposed with this bill."
At the same time, he admitted that "the economic volume" of trade between Norway and the Israeli settlements "is not very extensive," so the measure has mainly a symbolic character and political positioning. "The relevant goods are, for example, wine and some agricultural products," the head of Norwegian diplomacy specified.
The Israeli reaction has come through its Embassy in Oslo, which has described the proposal as "the latest example of Eide's obsessive and anti-Israel activism," as expressed on its social media profiles.
In the same vein, the diplomatic mission reproached the Scandinavian country for having "repeatedly chosen to sacrifice its bilateral relationship with Israel in favor of a partial rhetoric and hostile actions that serve national interests, undermine efforts to reach peaceful solutions, and are completely detached from the reality of the Middle East."
Spain, along with Norway, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, Poland, Portugal, and Sweden, defended last week the imposition of restrictions on trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, expressing its willingness to move in that direction, a line that governments like that of Pedro Sánchez have already been applying for a year.
In a joint statement, released after the United Kingdom, France, and Canada decided to ban imports from Israeli settlements, these countries denounced that the increase in violence in the West Bank by settlers and the expansion of the settlements "endanger the possibility of a two-state solution."
These positions are framed in a scenario of a resurgence of attacks by settlers and operations by the Israeli Army in the West Bank following the attacks of October 7, 2023. However, in the months prior to that year, the highest number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank since the Second Intifada, two decades ago, had already been recorded.