UNITED NATIONS — It has been over two years since Norway closed its diplomatic mission to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank city of al-Ram, severing Oslo’s main conduit to Palestinians on the ground.

Norway was forced to shutter the mission in August 2024 after Israel expelled its diplomats working there.

Days earlier, Norway submitted an amicus brief to the International Criminal Court in defense of a war crimes case against Israel. Three months before that, it joined Spain and Ireland in recognizing Palestinian statehood.

Now, Norway has joined the United Kingdom and 10 other Western countries in advancing sanctions against Israeli settlements, potentially exposing Oslo to additional punitive measures by Jerusalem that could further limit its ability to help Palestinians on the ground.

But Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide argued that the move was worth such a risk.

“You’re always trying to balance different interests, but at this point, it’s the right thing to do,” Eide said in an interview Tuesday with The Times of Israel on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

He explained that the legislation being advanced by Norway’s parliament to outlaw trade with Israeli settlements will not target Israel proper, which Oslo has no interest in boycotting.

“Our trade with Israel must be within the 1967 borders, and we wanted to do something that would go beyond words in demonstrating that the behavior in the settlements is unacceptable,” he argued, referring to Israeli communities in the West Bank that have expanded in record numbers under the current government, significantly limiting the territory left for a potential Palestinian state.

“The fact that we are [issuing these sanctions] with many others will hopefully send a signal to Israel that… its behavior toward the Palestinians is unacceptable,” Eide said, highlighting the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, rising settler violence in the West Bank along with Israel’s withholding of funds that belong to the Palestinian Authority.

In early 2024, Israel agreed to release Palestinian tax revenues, as long as Norway temporarily held on to the portion earmarked for the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. But Jerusalem ended that arrangement after Norway recognized a Palestinian state, and the continued Israeli withholding of those funds has brought the PA to the brink of collapse.

In the UK, there was internal pushback over the decision to announce the settlement trade ban shortly before Israel’s upcoming election, given that........

© The Times of Israel