UK and allies sanction ‘networks’ financing and enabling settler violence in West Bank
9th June 2026
Move designed to “hold extremist settlers accountable for horrific levels of settler violence” say the five countries
THE UK, Australia, Canada, France, and Norway have imposed sanctions on “networks” involved in financing and enabling Israeli settler attacks against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank.
The move is designed to “hold extremist settlers accountable for the horrific levels of settler violence”, the five countries said.
The UK has also made an official commitment to explicitly advise British businesses against economic and financial activity associated with illegal Israeli settlements.
An International Court of Justice opinion ruled in 2024 that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal, and it is against international law for an occupying power to transfer its own civilian population into occupied territory or to forcibly deport or displace the local population.
Israel has built around 160 settlements in Palestinian territory - housing some 700,000 Israeli settlers - since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 war - land Palestinians want, along with Gaza, for a future state.
There has been a significant surge in attacks by settlers on Palestinians and their property in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza, which was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
The UN recorded 1,835 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in 2025, which resulted in casualties or damage to property, in around 280 Palestinian communities in the West Bank.
At least seven Palestinians were killed and 832 injured in those attacks - both representing 130% increases compared to the previous year’s figures.
Settlement expansion has also increased sharply since Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in 2022. The Israeli premier heads up the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, which comprises of a pro-settler coalition.
The Israeli government has approved over 100 new settlements across the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli watchdog Peace Now.
In a statement in Parliament on Tuesday, UK foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Today we are acting with our international partners to sanction those who support and sponsor violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank.
“Settler expansion and violence is illegal and a fundamental threat to the viability of a two-state solution, and to long-term peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis.
“These measures show the UK is leading with our partners to target those who are fuelling this violence.”
The Foreign Office said the UK was imposing sanctions on six entities and one individual accused of being “involved in financing, enabling, and carrying out settler violence in the occupied West Bank.”
Those sanctioned now face asset freezes, as well as travel bans and director disqualifications, it added.
The entities include the Farms Association, which the British government said, “provides financial and organisational support to Israeli settler farms and outposts in the West Bank, including those associated with violence, intimidation, and forced displacement of Palestinians.”
They also include the Israeli settler group Ari Artzenu, which, “promotes, finances, and resources settler farms and outposts associated with violence against Palestinians,” the Foreign Office added.
Regarding the UK government’s advice to British businesses against trading with settler-related companies, Yvette Cooper said: “We believe that violent settler groups should not be profiting from the land they have seized from Palestinians.”
She added that the Israeli government had on occasions, “condemned some settler violence, but that rings hollow when there is scant accountability.”
France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, said France had banned controversial Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, from entering the country because he, “actively promotes the annexation of the West Bank, which he openly claims; the creation of new settlements in the West Bank; the re-colonisation of Gaza; the economic collapse of the Palestinian Authority and its harmful consequences for the Palestinian population.”
Norway said it was barring “20 violent settlers” from the country, while Australia published coordinated sanctions alongside New Zealand last week.
In June 2025, the UK, Australia, Canada, and Norway sanctioned Smotrich and far-right Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for what they said were, “repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities.”
Israel’s foreign ministry condemned the latest sanctions. In a statement it said: “The real essence of these steps is the attempt to impose a political stance regarding the right of Jews to settle in the Land of Israel and concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - camouflaged as measures against violence.”
The ministry said such “anti-Israeli policies” only served to fuel the antisemitism that was “rampant” in the countries involved.
The Palestinian foreign ministry welcomed the joint statement by the UK and its allies, which it said rejected “the occupation’s measures to annex the West Bank.”
