Amnesty calls for Israeli settlement import ban to protest 50 years of West Bank occupation

Amnesty International has called for a global ban on all goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements in the hope that it will stop human rights abuses against Palestinians.

The human rights organisation launched the campaign to mark the 50th anniversary of Israel's occupation of the West Bank.

Israel's settlement programme is considered illegal under international law and has been condemned as a major obstacle to the peace process by the United Nations and European Union. Fifty years after building commenced, some 2.5 million Palestinians live in Israeli settlements.

Hundreds of millions of pounds of goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank are exported internationally every year, according to Amnesty.

The organisation says a ban on these goods would stop Israel from receiving "multi-million pound profits that have fuelled mass human rights violations" against Palestinians living in settlements.

"We believe concrete action is now needed to stop the financing of the settlements," Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty International's Crisis Campaigns Manager, told IBTimes UK. "Profits made from exporting these products sustain an inherently discriminatory and unlawful system that violates the rights of Palestinians on a daily basis."

He said global condemnation of Israel's settlement programme and UN Security Council resolutions were "not enough" to deter the "mass violations against Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories".

Amnesty called on the UK government to no longer"shamefully" stand by as Israel destroyed Palestinian homes and profited from their land and natural resources. Benedict said the UK should stop importing goods such as oranges and dates from Israeli settlements.

"While the Palestinian economy has been stunted by 50 years of abusive policies, a thriving multi-million-dollar settlement enterprise has been built out of the systematic oppression of the Palestinian population," Amnesty International secretary-general Salil Shetty said in a statement.

"It's time for states to take concrete international action to stop the financing of settlements, which themselves flagrantly violate international law and constitute war crimes."