UK's High-Profile Ban on Settlement Imports as £2.1 Billion in Public Contracts Flow to Linked Companies

UK Foreign Secretary Miliband recently accused Israel of carrying out "ethnic cleansing" in Palestine during a parliamentary speech and announced a package of measures targeting Israeli settlements, the most prominent being a ban on imports from the settlements. However, according to an Al Jazeera investigation, UK public bodies have awarded contracts worth over £2.1 billion (approximately $2.8 billion) to 17 companies linked to illegal Israeli settlements — among which Airwave Solutions, a UK subsidiary of US firm Motorola Solutions, alone holds a £1.562 billion contract with the UK Home Office to provide secure communications networks for police, fire and ambulance services in England, Scotland and Wales.

The actual scope of the import ban is extremely limited. According to Al Jazeera citing UK government data, total UK trade in goods and services with Israel in 2025 was approximately £6 billion. In the most recent four quarters ending March 2026, UK imports recorded as "Palestinian" totalled only about £6 million. Even if all of this came from settlements, this trade would represent only about 0.1% of total UK-Israel trade.

A larger obstacle lies in identification and enforcement. Al Jazeera, citing a June 2026 report titled "Importing the Occupation" by the Global Echo Litigation Center, noted that among the fresh produce shipments from Israel to Europe that it examined, roughly one in six contained products originating from settlements — goods that are often mixed into the Israeli supply chain and labelled as Israeli products. The UK government has yet to publish the specific enforcement mechanisms for the new import ban, nor has it responded to Al Jazeera's inquiries about how Israeli domestic products will be distinguished from settlement products and Palestinian products.

The new measures themselves leave notable gaps. According to Al Jazeera, "services" are not covered by the initial ban, meaning financial services, insurance, logistics, legal services and tourism will not be automatically restricted. At the same time, UK exports to the settlements — which form the bulk of bilateral trade — are also not subject to the ban.

More substantively, the government has pledged to create "designation powers" targeting individuals and companies that "support, facilitate or profit from illegal settlement activity." The Al Jazeera investigation found that, in addition to the Motorola Solutions group (with contracts totalling over £1.7 billion), the named companies belong to four major groups: German construction materials giant Heidelberg Materials, French engineering group Egis, Spanish train manufacturer CAF, and China's Fosun Group. The activities of these groups or their parent companies have all been linked to settlements, spanning infrastructure, transport, communications or commercial operations.

Jess Stober, legal director at the Global Echo Litigation Center, told Al Jazeera that the new mechanism could change supply chain behaviour: "Under the old system, even if importers were caught, the goods could continue to be sold after duties were paid. Under a ban, prohibited goods could be refused entry, and companies could face significant financial losses and sanctions. Every participant in the supply chain will have reason to conduct rigorous origin due diligence."

Stober believes the key lies in policy consistency. She told Al Jazeera: "The UK government has now explicitly recognised that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal. If it is aligning its trade and sanctions policy with this position and with the International Court of Justice's advisory opinion of July 2024, it should also examine whether its own procurement and contractual relationships are consistent with these obligations."

Al Jazeera has asked the UK government whether it is reviewing links between existing public sector contractors and settlement activity, whether the relevant companies could fall under the new designation powers, and how existing contracts would be handled if they were designated, but had received no response as of publication.

Under the current UK system, eligible Israeli products can benefit from preferential tariffs under the UK-Israel trade agreement, but products from territories under Israeli jurisdiction since June 1967 cannot. Importers claiming Israeli tariff preferences must use customs document code Y864, declaring that the goods do not originate from territories under Israeli jurisdiction since 1967. Approximately 750,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are recognised as illegal under international law.