It matters that Israel is mislabelling settlement goods
JVL Introduction
The UK and almost every European government agree that Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and in the Golan Heights are illlegal under international law. They do, however, have special trade agreements with Israel. The preferential treatment is not supposed to apply to produce from settlements but there is clear evidence of significant mislabelling of settlement produce as Israeli , thereby avoiding the additional tariffs. This has been examined in detail by the NGO Global Echo which is demanding that the UK government look at how it controls Israeli imports. They promise to take legal action if HMRC does not act.
What is absolutely clear is that for Israel there is no difference between products made within the Green Line and those made in the illegal settlements; they are all part of one economy. It is definitely important to call Israel out on their violation of the agreements and to call the government(s) out for failing to impose the agreed terms but we need also to ask, given Israel draws no distinction, why do we? Why are we offering special terms, or even trading at all with a country that has been blatantly violating international law for decades?
This article was originally published by The Guardian on Mon 15 Jun 2026. Read the original here.
Settler products from occupied Palestine sold to Europe as Israeli, investigation finds
Shipments deliberately mislabelled to bolster settler economy, says non-profit Global Echo
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The only appropriate response is simply to reject any item labelled as, ‘Israeli’. Even better, let the supermarket know what you are doing and why.
Thank you for your article, I always pass on anything marked Israeli origin in the supermarket… however, I have noticed in Tesco and Waitrose that items like avocados are now coming from Peru …. My question is are these correctly labelled or are the Supermarkets in cahoots and allowing mislabeling ?
Many products avoid being labelled as Israeli. We need a list of items we can actively boycot. Why are reduced tariffs still in force for Israel anyway. Surely this is a way to hit them in the pocket like Trump did around the world.