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For less than $80, Etsy users can purchase a silver-plated Israeli military dog tag with custom inscription—and unknowingly undermine international law.
That’s because, although the Etsy seller is listed as living in Israel and describes their workshop as located in Jerusalem, they actually reside in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Their location, Ma’ale Adumim, is formally recognized by the United Nations as such.
The West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip were all invaded by the Israeli military during the Arab-Israeli War of 1967 and continue to be occupied by Israel, but are all internationally recognized as belonging to a future Palestinian state. Per the International Court of Justice, Ma’ale Adumim and the 300 other Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are illegal. Nevertheless, the Israeli government continues to expand illegal settlements with the complicity of companies like Etsy.
A recent report by the Institute for Journalism and Social Change (IJSC) found 47 Etsy sellers whose locations are listed as Israeli settlements. The organization noted 217 other sellers whose locations are listed only as “Israel,” obscuring whether they are located within the internationally recognized boundaries of the country, or in settlements. Some of these sellers, like the aforementioned vendor in Ma’ale Adumim, have been on the platform for years, accruing thousands of sales of items priced as high as nearly $800. While that means these sellers could be earning hundreds of thousands of dollars each, only Etsy knows the extent of its business with settlers.
A BUNIQE listing for a gold ring on Etsy, captured on October 30, 2024.
“We found shops that were labeled in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, which the returns revealed to actually be located in illegal settlements,” Jerry Richardson, a researcher with IJSC and co-author of the report, tells The Progressive. “Similarly unlabelled shops were identified through the seller’s profile as located in illegal Israeli settlements. The true number is known only to Etsy itself due to this lack of transparency.”
By allowing settlers to remain on the platform openly or helping to obscure settlers’ locations, Etsy enables the violation of international law and some local laws—and benefits from it too, as the company takes a commission on each sale, notwithstanding the seller’s circumstances.
Etsy failed to respond to multiple requests for comment for this article.
Although the degree of Etsy’s business with Israeli settlers remains obscure, its illicit nature is clear. An opinion released in July by the International Court of Justice reiterated the illegality of Israeli settlements and further obligated states “not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by the continued presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” Etsy’s terms and conditions have no specific provision that prohibits settlers from utilizing the marketplace, but company policy does bar the sale of items “subject to complex legal regulation.” According to IJSC, that should apply to products from illegal settlements.
Beyond Etsy’s own policies, the company is obligated to abide by international law under the United Nations’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. In the context of Israeli settlements, the United Nations has explicitly stated that companies must be able to demonstrate that their business does not financially, materially, or otherwise support the settlements. To that end, the organization also maintains a database of companies found supporting the settlements, such as Airbnb, which allows settlers to list properties in illegal settlements on the travel site, and Motorola, which supplies communications equipment to both settlers and Israeli state forces in the West Bank. Although Etsy is not currently among the nearly 100 companies listed in the database, the marketplace’s use by settlers may meet the criteria. Specifically, settlers’ Etsy profits may constitute “banking and financial operations helping to develop, expand or maintain settlements and their activities.”
In addition to international laws, Etsy is also subject to relevant local laws. The company is based in the United States, but its business outside of the Americas is handled by a subsidiary in Dublin. According to the IJSC report, this means that Etsy may be violating Irish laws that prohibit money laundering. As reported by The Irish Times and other media outlets, companies in Ireland linked to Israel have recently come under scrutiny for allegedly profiting off of criminal activity—namely, Israeli settlements. (Notably, Ireland was one of a handful of European countries to recently recognize the State of Palestine.) A similar case, brought by Dutch corporate watchdog SOMO against Booking.com for marketing Israeli settlements and allegedly “laundering profits from Israeli war crimes,” is currently making its way through the courts in the Netherlands.
When approached in August by IJSC with the findings of their report, Etsy stated that it “shared this information internally with the appropriate teams for review” and “strives to comply with applicable laws.” The company has yet to take any further action, according to Richardson.
As of this writing, the dog tags from Ma’ale Adumim are still available on the site. In March, the Israeli government approved efforts to expand the settlement, which the United Nations described as “a war crime.”