10 September 2026

NIF Australia welcomes coordinated action on settlements and urges Australia to support measures which protect a future negotiated peace

New Israel Fund Australia shares the growing concern across Israel’s civil society and the international community that the actions of this Israeli government may prevent a negotiated peace between Israelis and Palestinians. We welcome the decision by the United Kingdom, France, Canada and nine other countries to differentiate between legitimate Israeli activities, on the one hand, and activities that sit outside of international and often Israel’s own laws on settlements, on the other. 

Measures to restrict the trade of goods produced in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, or to sanction those who finance and construct settlement expansion, do not target Israel; they target the occupation. The settlement enterprise is expanding, encouraged by the Netanyahu government. In fact, the government is working hard to make the occupation permanent through E1 building contracts and unchecked settler violence. This coordinated  action is not a boycott of Israel, nor is it anti-Israel or antisemitic. The action is a reasonable and measured response to efforts on the ground to foreclose any pathway to a fair and peaceful future for the region.

Here in Australia, our community is still grieving the murder of fifteen people at a Hanukkah gathering at Bondi Beach in December 2025, and antisemitism is real, resurgent and frightening. NIF Australia engaged closely with the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion because that fight matters to us. It is precisely because it matters that we insist on and support the distinction the international community drew this week: conflating criticism of the occupation with hatred of Jews serves neither the safety of Jewish Australians nor the cause of peace. It shields the settlement enterprise from scrutiny while cheapening the language and protections we need to confront genuine antisemitism.

We share Foreign Minister Penny Wong's sentiment, shared in the Senate yesterday, that settlement expansion, the E1 development and settler violence are "extinguishing the possibility of a two-state solution." We urge the Government to build on that recognition with action. Australia has sanctioned violent settlers before and should now follow through, in step with our closest partners, in this coordinated action.

The occupation has never delivered security for Israelis; instead it has denied freedom for millions of Palestinians, entrenched instability for both peoples, and pushed a just resolution further out of reach. A future of freedom, dignity and security for both Israelis and Palestinians depends on distinguishing Israel from the occupation, just as these measures by nine other countries have done.