West Bankupdated 17m ago2 min read
Archive photo · 29 September 2011French Parliament Committee Approves Bill Banning Imports of Israeli Settlement Products
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Economic Affairs Committee approved a bill banning imports of Israeli settlement products in West Bank. Plenary session to discuss the bill on November 19.
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French MPs back settlement ban
A committee in the French Parliament approved a bill aimed at banning the import of Israeli settlement products in the occupied West Bank and services that contribute to supporting the settlements. Olivier Four, the Secretary General of the Socialist Party, defended the proposal by saying, "Sanctions are not aimed at Israel in general," and he added that the objective was "to stop financing an illegal practice."
The bill, which was to be discussed in a plenary session on November 19, provided for a prison term of up to one year and a fine of up to 5% of the company’s global annual turnover for violations. The text, signed by more than 100 deputies from 8 parliamentary blocs and supported by the left-wing blocs and the Democrat Movement party (MoDEM), faced opposition from President Emmanuel Macron's party and the National Rally.
PS frames it as financing
Olivier Faure, the first secretary of the Socialist Party (PS) and rapporteur of the text, said, "We cannot sustainably condemn a policy on the diplomatic level while allowing economic relations that contribute to its maintenance to continue," as MPs adopted the commission text on Monday, November 9. The proposal sought to ban the import, purchase, and commercialization of goods originating from Israeli colonies, and it also targeted services, including financial services, that contribute to the development or maintenance of the colonies, such as renting apartments to tourists.
Sylvain Maillard, a Macronist deputy, criticized the extension to services by denouncing a "vague criminal risk" for companies, saying, "It is imprecise, it is disproportionate and it exposes one to the censures of the Constitutional Council." The National Rally denounced the bill as an "obsession against Israel" and called it an "insignificant little publicity stunt," while the text’s adoption in committee did not pre-judge the outcome of the November 19 vote.
West Bank context and next vote
An Ir Amim report titled "Displacement: The State’s Mechanism for Expropriation in East Jerusalem" documented the roles of 19 government entities across 8 ministries and Israeli authorities in the displacement of Palestinians and the seizure of their property in occupied Jerusalem. The Al-Jazirah Net source said around 770,000 Israeli settlers live in hundreds of settlements and outposts in the occupied West Bank, including around 250,000 in East Jerusalem, and it cited the United Nations Security Council resolution 2334 of 2016 as considering the settlements without any legal validity.
Olivier Faure’s bill was described as a first step because the prohibition was not yet in force, with the discussion scheduled for November 19 in the hemicycle. The Oumma source said the committee vote did not yet make the ban effective, and it framed the November 19 debate as a contested translation of diplomatic condemnations into concrete actions.