This week, the United Kingdom, France and Canada announced bans on imports from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, while nine other European governments have confirmed they will introduce, support or actively consider restrictions on settlement trade.
Despite recognising that Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory are illegal under international law and that settlement expansion is a major obstacle to a two-state solution, Australia has so far declined to follow suit, opting instead for narrower, targeted measures against individual violent settlers.
Save the Children Australia urges the Australian government to demonstrate its commitment to international law and the protection of Palestinian children with concrete action.
Save the Children Director of Strategic Communications and Engagement, Aram Hosie said:
"Ongoing illegal settlement expansion is robbing Palestinian children of their childhoods, they are being displaced from their homes, blocked from safely reaching school and healthcare, exposed to settler and military violence, and in some cases detained, abused and killed.
"On Mother's Day this year, a Save the Children colleague in the West Bank was travelling with her two-month-old daughter when armed, masked Israeli settlers surrounded her car. They vandalised the car and tried to force their way in and set it alight while she and her baby were still inside. Israeli soldiers and police stood by and did not intervene," Mr Hosie said.
In June 2026 a UN Commission of Inquiry found that Israel is continuing to commit genocide in Gaza and war crimes in the West Bank, including by deliberately targeting and killing Palestinian children.
"Those findings can't be met with words of condemnation alone, and they can't be answered by only going after individual violent settlers. When a Commission finds that the state itself has committed grave crimes against children, and while state policy continues to drive settlement expansion, the response has to be bigger than that."
"There's real momentum here. Twelve governments have recognised that settlement expansion and the violence and dispossession that comes with it cannot be allowed to continue with impunity. Australia has obligations under international law to ensure its actions do not support unlawful actions. Protecting children requires more than just words.
"There is an opportunity and an obligation here for Australia to take meaningful action. We're urging the government to honour that obligation," Mr Hosie said.
