Earlier this month, the UK, France and Canada - among the main sponsors of Israel’s genocide in Gaza - banned trade with Jewish settlements in the West Bank, finally joining a boycott that Spain, Ireland and other countries opposed to the genocide had begun long before. Trading in settlement products was itself a violation of international law all along.

Meanwhile, the European countries and Canada, announcing boycotts of the West Bank Jewish settlements, will continue to import products from the Jewish settler-colony of Israel itself.

The boycotters cite increasing settler violence (which means earlier settler violence was not sufficient to elicit a boycott). They also base the boycott on the International Court of Justice’s 2024 advisory opinion, which found Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory - the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza - unlawful.

Yet no boycott of Israel, or at least of its army, has been announced, leading one to conclude that Israeli army violence is not a serious offence that merits penalties.

Why are these poor settlers unfairly bearing the brunt of the repercussions when they are but junior players in the massive oppression that the Zionist movement and the Israeli state and military have visited on the Palestinian people since the 1880s?