Key facts
- Global Echo said at least US$5 million of organic dates from illegal West Bank settlements were shipped to Australia over eight years.
- Global Echo said 85 of 132 agricultural shipments from Israel to Australia between August 2018 and August 2026 contained settlement products.
- Global Echo said 20 of 24 date shipments between January 2025 and August 2026 were sourced from settlements.
- Penny Wong told the Senate in September that Australia was not pursuing a blanket import ban on settlement goods.
- The foreign affairs and trade department said Australia is pursuing further targeted measures with international partners.
Global Echo, a human rights legal organization, said at least US$5 million (A$7.2 million) of organic dates grown in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank were shipped to Australia over the past eight years labeled "produce of Israel," according to an analysis of trade data published on November 4, 2026. The group analyzed commercial documents and official trade data from the Israeli government and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Global Echo analyzed 132 agricultural shipments from Israel to Australia between August 2018 and August 2026. It said 85 of them, or 64%, contained settlement products. The proportion was higher in more recent years: between January 2025 and August 2026, 20 of 24 date shipments analyzed were sourced from settlements.
The settlements where the dates are grown include Netiv Hagdud, Beit Haarava, Arvot Jericho, Hamra, Tomer, Mechora and Naaran, the group said. It said the settlements are in occupied parts of the West Bank, which Australia recognizes as part of the state of Palestine. Israel's settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.
Israeli law obliges exporters to label the origin of products from settlements as being from Israel unless they are being exported to a country whose laws prohibit such labeling. Australia has no law banning the import of goods from settlement areas and no requirement that they be labeled as originating from occupied land.
Emily Schaeffer Omer-Man, executive director of Global Echo, said Australian consumers would likely find it "startling" that settlement goods were on the Australian market and that they formed the majority of agricultural products labeled as imported from Israel in the shipments analyzed. "This means that Australian consumers of Israeli dates and other Israeli agricultural products are quite likely contributing to the ongoing occupation and settlement of Palestinian land," she said.
Penny Wong, the foreign minister, told the Senate in September that Israel's settlements in the West Bank were illegal and said the Australian government called on Israel "to stop settlers from destroying properties, displacing families and beating, torturing, sexually assaulting and killing Palestinians." She said Australia was not pursuing a blanket import ban on settlement goods, as the UK, Spain, Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands have either announced or imposed. "We have concerns about the implementation of a blanket ban and unintended consequences for Australian businesses," Wong said.
A spokesperson for the foreign affairs and trade department said: "Australia is pursuing further targeted measures, in coordination with international partners, to deter illegal settlements and settler violence." The Israeli embassy in Canberra did not respond to a request for comment.
Sarah Sanbar, Human Rights Watch's Israel/Palestine researcher, said international trade was "one of the lifelines" of illegal settlements. "These settlements are not simply residential communities – they are illegal, and they are inextricably linked to human rights abuses," she said. Sanbar said Israeli authorities restrict Palestinian access to land and natural resources, particularly water, restrict movement and access to land, and limit Palestinian development.
In June, Global Echo released a report, Importing Occupation, which detailed the practice of Israeli exporters to Europe hiding the origin of produce grown in occupied Palestine to qualify for tax breaks and bolster the settler economy. Schaeffer Omer-Man said the mislabeling of produce was neither aberration nor accident. "Agriculture has been used since the start of the settlement enterprise as a means of large-scale land grab and creeping annexation," she said.
Israel's ambassador to Australia, Dr Hillel Newman, told the Australian newspaper at the time of the UK's September announcement that the issue of settlements had been "blown out of proportion" and that Australia should not follow the UK's example. "It would be a deep mistake to take steps in such a direction," Newman said.