Food grown in illegal West Bank settlements being sold in Australia as ‘produce of Israel’

Millions of dollars of food grown in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank has been shipped to Australia labelled as “produce of Israel”, new analysis of trade data has shown.

Human rights legal organisation Global Echo has analysed commercial documents and official trade data from the Israeli government and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, showing at least US$5m (A$7.2m) of organic dates grown in illegal settlements across the West Bank have been shipped to Australia over the past eight years.

Global Echo analysed 132 agricultural shipments from Israel to Australia between August 2018 and August 2026. Of those, 85 – or 64% – contained settlement products.

The proportion of settlement goods is higher in more recent years. Between January 2025 and August 2026, 20 of 24 shipments of dates to Australia analysed by Global Echo were sourced from settlements.

Israel’s settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.

The settlements where dates bound for Australia are grown – including Netiv Hagdud, Beit Haarava, Arvot Jericho, Hamra, Tomer, Mechora, and Naaran – are occupied parts of the West Bank, recognised as part of the state of Palestine by Australia.

Israeli law obliges exports to label the origin of products from settlements as being from Israel, unless they are being exported to a country with laws that prohibit such labelling.

There is no law in Australia banning the import of goods from settlement areas, and no requirement that those goods be labelled as originating from occupied land.

The executive director of Global Echo, Emily Schaeffer Omer-Man, said Australian consumers would likely find it “startling” that settlement goods were on the Australian market, and that they formed the majority of agricultural products labelled as being imported from Israel in the shipments that were analysed.

“This means that Australian consumers of Israeli dates and other Israeli agricultural products are quite likely contributing to the ongoing occupation and settlement of Palestinian land.”

The foreign minister, Penny Wong, told the Senate in September Israel’s settlements in Palestine’s West Bank were illegal, and said the Australian government called on Israel “to stop settlers from destroying properties, displacing families and beating, torturing, sexually assaulting and killing Palestinians”.

But she said Australia was not pursuing a blanket import ban on settlement goods, as other countries such as the UK, Spain, Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands have either announced or imposed.

“We have concerns about the implementation of a blanket ban and unintended consequences for Australian businesses,” Wong said.

In June Global Echo released a report, Importing Occupation, which detailed the practice of Israeli exporters to Europe hiding the origin of produce grown in occupied Palestine to qualify for tax breaks and bolster the settler economy.

Schaeffer Omer-Man said the mislabelling of produce was neither aberration nor accident.

“Agriculture has been used since the start of the settlement enterprise as a means of large-scale land grab and creeping annexation. This is not a secret; it has been declared openly by Israeli government officials and politicians over decades.”

Schaeffer Omer-Man said import bans on settlement goods in Europe – Israel’s largest market – would lead exporters looking to other markets, potentially including Australia.

“One of the other markets where settlement goods currently fly under the radar is Australia. So it’s going to places like Australia, like Russia, like the US, places that are not demanding that settlement goods are treated any differently.”

Sarah Sanbar, Human Rights Watch’s Israel/Palestine researcher, said international trade was “one of the lifelines” of illegal settlements.

“These settlements are not simply residential communities – they are illegal, and they are inextricably linked to human rights abuses.”

The settlements fragmented and undermined the Palestinian economy, Sanbar said. Israeli authorities restrict Palestinian access to land and natural resources, in particular water, restrict movement and access to land, and limit Palestinian development.

“A Palestinian farmer who can no longer access his agricultural land because of settlement expansion may lose his livelihood, only to see a settlement-based agricultural business then profit off that very same land,” Sanbar said.

“The result is an economic environment that is increasingly unequal by design, and a hallmark of apartheid.”

Wong was contacted for comment.

A spokesperson for the foreign affairs and trade department said: “Australia is pursuing further targeted measures, in coordination with international partners, to deter illegal settlements and settler violence.”

The Israeli embassy in Canberra did not respond to a request for comment.

In announcing the UK’s trade ban on settlement goods in September, its foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, said “settler terrorists” were committing ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.

Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Dr Hillel Newman, told the Australian newspaper at the time the issue of settlements had been “blown out of proportion” and that Australia should not follow the UK’s example.

“It would be a deep mistake to take steps in such a direction,” Newman said.