In West Bank, date farmers weigh impact of UK sanctions on Israeli settlers
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In West Bank, date farmers weigh the effects of UK sanctions on Israeli settlers
Image caption: Dates, such as these in the Jordan Valley, are among the agricultural products commonly exported from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
By Yolande Knell, Middle East correspondent
Published 8 September 2026, 16:03 BST
Updated 41 minutes ago
Juicy brown and ripening yellow dates dangle down from each palm tree at Israeli settler farms in the Jordan Valley, in the occupied West Bank. This year, as Israeli growers prepare for a promising harvest, they are also considering how new Western sanctions against settlements will impact them.
The UK government has announced an import ban on settlement goods and plans to take action against companies and individuals aiding settlement expansion, part of what it calls a "comprehensive reset" in policy towards Israel, following similar moves by several other European countries.
Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden have also expressed their intention to introduce national restrictions or support European sanctions on trade with settlements.
Palestinians strongly back these measures, but Israel’s foreign minister called them "hostile" and announced counter-measures, including the closure of the British consulate in East Jerusalem.
Israeli date farmer Avigdor Arbel from the settlement of Mesua calls such boycotts "really disgusting". He sells his produce mainly to Europe, but also to the US and India. Yet, he is confident his sector can adapt:
"As soon as we face pressure and boycotts, we always find new markets. I believe if we get cut off from European markets, we’ll find others."
Image caption: Settler farmer Avigdor Arbel does not see Israel ever relinquishing the Jordan Valley.
West Bank settlements have grown rapidly under the current Israeli government, whose ministers say they want to "bury the idea" of an independent Palestinian state—a long-standing international formula for peace in the region known as the two-state solution. At the same time, settler violence against Palestinians has surged to what the UN calls "an all-time high".
New settler outposts now dot the barren hilltops of the Jordan Valley, leading to repeated attacks on local Palestinians—especially Bedouin and herding communities. In January, some 600 villagers from Ras Ein al-Ouja became the largest single displacement of a Palestinian community in three years after intense harassment by hardline settlers often backed by Israeli security forces.
Further north, in March, Israeli settlers brutally beat and sexually assaulted a Palestinian shepherd during a night raid on Khirbet Humsa.
British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told Parliament on Tuesday that a set of factors on the ground had made "the two-state solution unviable", adding that "settler terrorism is rampant." Quoting former Israeli minister of health and retired brigadier general, Ephraim Sneh, he stated: "There is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank perpetrated by settler terrorists," a view supported by numerous international organizations.
