Shipping giant MSC facilitates trade from illegal Israeli settlements through EU
The world’s largest shipping line has been enabling the transport of goods to and from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, as the US and Europe continue to promote trade despite clear responsibilities under international law, a joint investigation by Al Jazeera and the Palestinian Youth Movement reveals.
The Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has regularly shipped cargo from companies based in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, according to commercial documents obtained through US import databases.
Between January 1 and November 22, 2025, lading bills show that MSC facilitated at least 957 shipments of goods from Israeli outposts to the US. Of these shipments, 529 transited through European ports, including 390 in Spain, 115 in Portugal, 22 in the Netherlands, and two in Belgium.
Between January 1 and November 22, 2025, lading bills show that MSC facilitated at least 957 shipments of goods from Israeli outposts to the US. Of these shipments, 529 transited through European ports, including 390 in Spain, 115 in Portugal, 22 in the Netherlands, and two in Belgium.
MSC is privately owned by Italian billionaire Gianluigi Aponte and his wife, Rafaela Aponte-Diamant, who was born in the Israeli city of Haifa in 1945, then under British rule as Mandatory Palestine.
“Israeli settlements are widely considered illegal under international law, because they are built on occupied territory, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention,” Nicola Perugini, senior lecturer in international relations at the University of Edinburgh, told Al Jazeera. “Commercialising products from these settlements effectively supports the illegal settlements.”
The findings capture a limited portion of the settlement trade, since import and export data from Israel and most European countries is not publicly available. They reveal a reliance on cargo shipping companies and European maritime ports for the transport of a vast range of settlement products, from food items and textiles to skin care and natural stones.
Perugini said states should ban trade with illegal settlements entirely, as it contributes to ongoing violations of international law.
“You cannot normalise the profits of an illegal occupation,” he said.
The trade stands in contrast with a landmark 2024 opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) advising that third states are obliged to “prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.
The ICJ opinion does not directly address the responsibility of private corporations like MSC.
In April, the UN Human Rights Council urged individual corporate actors to “cease contributing to the establishment, maintenance, development or consolidation of Israeli settlements or the exploitation of the natural resources of the Occupied Palestinian Territory”.
Additionally, a 2024 EU directive on corporate sustainability mandates that large companies working in the bloc identify and address adverse human rights and environmental impacts in their operations.
According to UN estimates, settlements in Area C – comprising more than 60 percent of the occupied West Bank that Israel controls – and occupied East Jerusalem contribute about $30bn to the Israeli economy each year.
As Israel enforces administrative and physical barriers that severely limit Palestinian businesses, the West Bank’s economy is understood to have suffered a cumulative loss of $170bn between 2000 and 2024.
