UK awards £10.7m in contracts to firms tied to West Bank settlements
An Al Jazeera investigation finds that after Britain announced new sanctions powers, UK public bodies awarded 18 more contracts to companies linked to illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Their combined value is £10.7 million.
UK public bodies have awarded new contracts worth £10.7 million ($14.4m) to companies linked to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to an investigation by the news outlet Al Jazeera. The settlements are illegal under international law, and on September 8 the British government announced new powers to sanction firms that profit from business with them.
The investigation drew on procurement records, company filings and contract data from Tussell, a British public sector market intelligence firm. Since the announcement, public bodies have published an additional 18 contracts with companies that the United Nations has named over settlement involvement, or with their subsidiaries. An earlier Al Jazeera investigation in August found at least 17 such companies had won UK public-sector contracts worth more than £2.1 billion.
Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told the House of Commons on September 8 that the government would act against companies and individuals providing construction, infrastructure, financing or real estate services for settlement expansion. Former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn called the continued contracts outrageous and insulting to the public. Neve Gordon, a professor at Queen Mary University of London's school of law, said the companies appear to breach obligations under international humanitarian law.
The companies involved
Three subsidiaries of Germany-based building materials group Heidelberg Materials were named in 14 contracts worth £10.4 million, mostly for roadworks. Its Israeli subsidiary, Hanson Israel, owns a quarry in the West Bank. Heidelberg says operations there ceased in 2023, but the research group Who Profits says an expansion was approved on May 28, 2025.
Motorola Solutions received two contracts worth about £87,900 for police communications; its total with the group is about £1.7 billion. A subsidiary of China's Fosun International won a £98,000 hospital contract, and a subsidiary of French engineering group Egis won an £84,000 contract. Egis says it formally disagreed with its inclusion in the UN database.
The Cabinet Office, which did not respond to Al Jazeera, previously said individual authorities decide on excluding suppliers case by case, and that procurement should not be used for boycotts unless formal sanctions are in place.
