European foreign ministers are set to discuss proposals for trade sanctions against illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank at a meeting in Brussels on Monday, July 13th.

The discussions are based on a confidential policy paper circulated by the European Commission that floats three policy options: an import licensing system, prohibitive tariffs, or a complete ban on goods from Settlements. Diplomats do not expect a formal decision on any particular plan to come from the meeting. Rather, the meeting is expected to explore whether there is enough support for new measures to curb trade with Israeli settlements that a vote on a single option could be called.

According to the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, approximately 737,332 Israeli settlers now live in the Palestinian West Bank, including in East Jerusalem. That same report found that 1,779 Palestinian-owned structures had been demolished by settlers as of October, 2024. In a July 2024 advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice said the occupation of Palestine’s West Bank was illegal, including the building of Israeli settlements and outposts. The ICJ suggested that states should take steps to prevent trade or investment relationships that help to maintain the growth of these settlements.

In May of 2025, the EU imposed sanctions on four entities and three individuals under the European Union’s Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime. These settler leaders and organizations, which support them, were sanctioned on the grounds of ‘serious and systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank.’ This action set the precedent for the EU’s ability to stand up to actions taken by Settlers, but it hasn’t been seriously followed up. In fact, it stands out as one of the few taken against Israel, as the EU has long struggled to take major decisions when it comes to Israel-Palestinian policy due to the competing views of its 27 member nations. 

An April 2026 effort to suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which came into effect in 2000, failed to garner enough support to warrant any action. The agreement governs the EU and Israel’s political and economic ties, and says that their relationship “shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles”. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said after talks had ended that there was not sufficient support to suspend the agreement, promising that talks on the relationship with Israel would continue. Instead, countries critical of Israel, including Spain, the Netherlands, and Ireland, imposed their own individual trade restrictions on Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

While the meeting on Monday won’t end in a formal decision, it is still being set up as an important signal on where the EU members stand. Some Diplomats say that the banning of trade will require at least 15 EU states, representing 65% of the EU’s total population, but the European Commission suggested it believed a ban would constitute a policy decision, requiring a unanimous consensus, a bar that is unlikely to be met even with strong support. This interpretation is supported by Germany, the Czech Republic, and Italy, which have made it clear that they do not want to change their policy towards Israel at this time. However, a rival camp that includes France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, and Ireland says the Commission is taking an unnecessarily strict view of its own powers, referring to past decisions by the Council of the EU’s legal service as evidence.

Nasser Khdour, Middle East assistant research manager at the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), said 2026 is the deadliest year for settler violence since ACLED began tracking incidents in Palestine. Khdour said, “Incidents have included attacks on Palestinians, property destruction, damage to farming equipment and facilities, tree uprooting, and grazing on Palestinian agricultural land. Other incidents have involved looting, including the theft of equipment, sheep, and crops.” The number of Israeli settlements, and in turn the number of violent incidents connected to Israeli settlers, has only increased over the last few years, with no sign of slowing down. 

As the European Union is Israel’s current largest trading partner, with trade amounting to 42.6 billion euros in 2024, any EU effort to sanction Israeli settlers would have a massive impact on the financial sustainability of those settlements. On the other hand, trade with illegal West Bank settlements makes up only about 0.5% of total imports from Israel to the EU, representing a very limited financial risk to European countries. However, the possibility that any policy decision is implemented is a far-off thought. Critics of the European Commission and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the EC, say that the organization is attempting to postpone any real decision-making until the next scheduled meeting in late October, bypassing Israeli elections earlier that month and making it harder for the EU to effect policy changes in the country. However, if there is sufficient support for a policy decision, public pressure could force the European Commission to act sooner and with more force.