The European countries, and Canada, that have enforced a boycott on goods from Judea and Samaria, have inflicted damage most of all not on Israelis, but on the Palestinian Arabs whom Israeli businesses in those territories employed. More on this unintended consequence can be found here: “Europe’s Settlement Boycotts Crush the Palestinians,” by Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute, October 22, 2026:
On September 8, 2026, Canada, Britain, France, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden announced their intention to introduce national restrictions on trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, support European-level measures, or consider similar action. The governments said their objective is to protect the “two-state solution” and respond to — presumably meaning prevent — “settlement expansion.” To many Palestinians, of course, all of Israel is one big settlement to be dismantled.
Some restrictions are already in force. Ireland’s prohibition on importing designated settlement goods took effect on September 15, followed by a Dutch ban on the import, purchase and sale of such goods on September 20. Other countries have announced plans or are considering additional restrictions.
These are not all components of one uniform import ban. The measures differ from country to country, and some remain proposals. The restrictions, in addition, do not generally prohibit all Israeli products: they target only goods originating in West Bank settlements where Jews live.
Nevertheless, the direction is clear. As European governments increase economic pressure on Israel, Palestinians working in businesses in the settlements lose their jobs.
According to a report by Israel’s Ynet news website, Israeli industry representatives have already reported declining overseas orders and the cancellation of long-term distribution contracts. Industrial zones such as Barkan, Mishor Adumim, and Ariel, where Israeli-owned factories employ Palestinians from surrounding West Bank communities, are particularly vulnerable.
Avraham Novogrotcki, president of the Manufacturers Association of Israel, described the boycott of factories in the Israeli settlements as a measure that primarily harms Palestinian workers and their families.
“The boycott of factories in Judea and Samaria is a cynical measure that first and foremost harms Palestinian workers,” Novogrotcki said.
“While various organizations present it as a moral step, in practice those paying the price are thousands of workers and their families who are losing a stable and dignified source of income. Instead of building economic bridges between Israelis and Palestinians, some are choosing to tear them down. Industry creates jobs, stability and hope, while the boycott creates exactly the opposite.”
European politicians may see these restrictions as a statement of principle. For a Palestinian father who loses his job, however, the consequences will be measured in lost wages, unpaid bills, and difficulty supporting his family.
For many Palestinians, employment in Israel or Israeli businesses in the West Bank is an important source of income in the Palestinian Authority economy, where opportunities are limited.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) has documented the importance of this employment. In a 2017 report, the ILO said average wages earned by Palestinians working in Israel and Israeli West Bank settlements were more than twice those earned in the Palestinian Authority. It also reported that approximately one-quarter of the total wage income of Palestinians in the West Bank came from employment in Israel and Israeli settlements.
The “Palestinians” who work for companies in Israel or in the settlements in Judea and Samaria earn more than twice what they can in the Palestinian Authority. When companies in the territories move back to Israel to avoid the boycott, shutting down their operations in Judea and Samaria, those “Palestinians” lose their jobs, and there are no jobs in the Palestinian Authority that pay anything close to their previous salaries.
Those countries imposing the boycott on Israeli products from Judea and Samaria have paid no attention to the effect on “Palestinian” workers in the territories who lose their jobs as a result, as factories are forced either to close down or to move to Israel within the 1967 lines as a result. They have not provided any alternate employment for these “Palestinians” who are now without work because of their boycott. They are focused only on hurting Israel, and if the estimated 17,600 “Palestinians” in Judea and Samaria lose their well-paying jobs in the Israeli settlements, well, so be it.
In those companies in Judea and Samaria where Israeli Jews and “Palestinians” work side by side for a common goal — to make the companies they work for succeed — that close association can promote greater intercommunal harmony, which those who claim to want peace should surely want to encourage. Close down those factories because of the boycott, and that factory-floor cooperation between Arabs and Jews is lost.
The “Palestinian” fathers who lose their jobs as a result of the boycott that closes Israeli-owned companies operating in Judea and Samaria will face sudden impoverishment. The resulting frustration and anger can lead to violence and a turn toward fanatical Islam. But those countries imposing the boycott have given, it seems, no thought to the consequences for the “Palestinians” thrown out of work when Israeli factories in Judea and Samaria either shut down altogether, or simply move back to Israel within the Green Line.
Those European countries that have passed legislation to boycott all products made in Judea and Samaria are virtue-signaling — “we are against the pariah state of Israel” — and hoping to win electoral favor from their new Muslim citizens and from their brain-addled leftwing young people. They are hurting those “Palestinians” in Judea and Samaria who were working for Israeli companies, and with those companies now either closing or moving into Israel, those “Palestinians” have lost those well-paying jobs. But why should they care? At least those governments will have had a chance to righteously display their anti-Israel animus. And isn’t that what counts?
somehistory says
I personally can’t find any sympathy for the “palestinains” How many would gladly rape and murder if given the opportunity.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Okay, that’s a silver lining of the BDS campaign against Judea & Samaria
Taffy says
No one cares about the Palestinians. BDS is only directed to the “evil” Israelis. The vineyards of Judea and Samaria are worked mostly by local Arab labor. And most of their export market uses local Arab workers to produce the goods. What France and Norway and Belgium have done is to have mass layoffs.
ploome says
Arabs working in Israel are torn between necessity to feed their families, and resentment and envy because the Jews got the land with the swimming pools and nice buildings, and world class universities and hospitals.
Employing the arabs is a very bad idea.