The Belgian federal government has adopted by royal decree an import ban on goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
The decision to introduce the ban was made in September 2025, but political disagreements and negotiations delayed its implementation.
A political agreement was finally reached on Saturday, during an overnight marathon cabinet session just before the government entered its summer recess.
This makes Belgium the fourth European country with an import ban on Israeli settlements. Spain was first in September 2025, followed by the Netherlands and then Ireland.
No details of the bill are available yet, as the text has not been made public.
'Belgium has reached a point of no return'
Following the announcement on Saturday, MK Sharren Haskel said: “Belgium has reached a point of no return.”
“It can continue importing radical Islam. We will continue exporting products from Judea and Samaria to countries that choose to import innovation, quality, and technology.”
Belgian MP Sam van Rooy accused the government of singling out Israel, while turning a blind eye to issues in other parts of the world.
“The fact that an import ban on products from Samaria and Judea would also hurt tens of thousands of Palestinians – I have seen that with my own eyes – doesn’t matter to you in the slightest,” he said. “You are equally silent about the Christians in Africa and the Middle East who are slaughtered every week – sometimes every day – by Islamist terrorists.”
He suggested the dogged focus on Israel may derive from electoral calculations, given there are 25 times as many Muslims as Jews in Belgium.
Amnesty International welcomed the ban.
Nathalie Janne, advocacy officer for Amnesty International’s French-speaking Belgian section, said: “Too few states are taking concrete steps today to end Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory or impunity for the genocide in Gaza, the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and the apartheid system imposed on the Palestinian people.”
“Although this agreement has been long overdue and far from perfect, it is still a step forward to Belgium’s credit. This initiative increases the pressure for the adoption of such a measure at the level of the European Union, even though several Member States have adopted various forms of bans on settlement products; the calls for harmonized European action by the European Commission are thus becoming more and more insistent.”
Various NGOs have also criticized the ban for only applying to settlements in the West Bank and not in the Golan Heights, which they consider to be illegally occupied.
“There is no rational argument for not including the Golan Heights,” said Rikkert Horemans, Israel-Palestine policy officer at the NGO Broederlijk Delen.
“Belgium and the European Union do not recognize the Israeli annexation of the Golan and have been treating the area in the same way as other Israeli-occupied territories for years. Those who argue not to include the Golan do so not for legal or practical reasons, but to spare Israel.”
Additionally, NGOs have highlighted the fact that settlement goods will still be able to enter through the back door, in other words, from third-party European countries.