ISTANBUL

A major Scottish Catholic charity joined an international campaign urging governments to end trade with illegal Israeli settlements.

"Justice & Peace Scotland has joined more than 80 civil society organisations worldwide to launch a new campaign, Stop Trade With Settlements, calling on governments to ban all trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt)," said the statement issued Monday by Justice & Peace Scotland, an agency of the Catholic Church.

As part of the campaign, a report titled "The Trading with Illegal Settlements" detailed how foreign states and corporations sustain "Israel’s prolonged occupation" by trading with illegal settlements despite settlers’ actions being recognized as a grave violation of international law.

"Israeli settlements are communities built by Israel on land in the West Bank occupied by Israel since 1967 that are illegal under international law: no occupying power can transfer members of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, as enshrined in the Fourth Geneva Convention," the statement said.

It stressed that Israel's growing expansion in the West Bank "is devastating" to Palestinians and called for the need to end trade with settlements to uphold human rights, protect Palestinian livelihoods, end settlement expansion and the "unlawful occupation."

"By sustaining the settlement economy through trade, investment, and services, states and companies are complicit in entrenching Israel’s illegal occupation and the dispossession of Palestinians," the statement underscored.

The campaign urged governments to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements and called on international corporations and financial institutions to end all services, trade, and investment linked to the settlement economy.

"The Stop Trade With Settlements campaign shines a light on how the illegal settlements, an integral part of the occupation, are sustained through trade. Ending this trade is not just a political necessity but a moral imperative. We cannot allow international companies and governments to profit from occupation, dispossession and human suffering," Justice & Peace Scotland Engagement Officer Anne-Marie Clements said.

Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza has killed nearly 65,000 Palestinians since October 2023 and devastated the enclave, which faces famine.

Israel is facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over its war on the territory.

In a landmark opinion last July, ICJ declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal. It demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.