Thousands of Christians visit West Bank settlements in support after European sanctions, trade bans

During the annual conference of the International Christian Embassy, thousands of Christians visited West Bank settlements in protest against European trade bans. Dag Juliussen, a Christian leader from Norway, stated that the European laws barring trade with Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria were antisemitic. He argued that opposing these laws was a moral stance against discrimination.

Several hundred more Christians traveled to settlements in the Binyamin and Gush Etzion regions to buy goods from local residents. The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) condemned the European trade bans, asserting that they were not justified by the actions of a few violent settlers. The ICEJ also accused European countries of double standards, pointing out that few had sanctioned regions with similar conflicts, such as Northern Cyprus and Western Sahara.

The ICEJ maintained that European countries had a political motive for the trade bans, aiming to influence the Israeli elections. They criticized these sanctions as an "intrusive act of disrespect for a fellow democratic state" and likened them to the policies of Hitler's era, which sought to make regions Judenrein.