LONDON — Twelve foreign ministers sat at one table last week, and when they stood up they had a trade ban, which is to say they had done the thing that usually takes a summit.

The United Kingdom, France, Canada, and nine other nations — Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden — announced a coordinated ban on goods produced in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, a fact the joint statement recited before the statement did.

The timing has a logic to it. Last month the Israeli government opened tenders for the construction of roughly 1,200 housing units in the E1 settlement area, a stretch of land whose significance is that building on it would effectively wall off East Jerusalem from the rest of the territory, according to the statement. Twelve foreign ministers read the tender documents and used a word. The word was “unacceptable,” and they used it together, in one sentence, which is the part of the story that took the longest to write.

"Unacceptable. The word was 'unacceptable.' Twelve foreign ministers, one word, zero follow-up questions."

Britain’s foreign secretary put the country’s position in what observers called surprisingly strong language, telling Parliament the occupation was unlawful and that Palestinians were facing ethnic cleansing in parts of the territory. Israel rejected the measures and accused the British government of hostility. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called the accusations “outrageous lies” and announced retaliatory measures, a phrase that in diplomatic usage means the next press release is being drafted.

The practical machinery of the ban is now in motion. Customs officials in a dozen countries are preparing to distinguish, item by item, a product made in a settlement from a product made next door to a settlement, which is the kind of line that, on paper, is drawn in a regulation and, in practice, is drawn in a conversation at a border crossing at 4 a.m.

THE COORDINATION, AT A GLANCE

  • Who is in: The UK, France, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden
  • What is banned: Goods produced in the settlements, specifically the settlements, specifically the parts of them with factories
  • What is not banned: Everything else, which is most of the trade, which is why the word "coordinated" is doing a lot of work
  • The trigger: A tender for 1,200 units in the E1 area, which is, per the statement, the word before "unacceptable"

Economists note the ban is smaller than the trade it sits inside, which is the honest way to describe a tool that is precise rather than broad. Diplomats note that precision is the point, which is the honest way to describe a decision that was, in the end, easier to make than the sentence that had to follow it.

At press time, the twelve customs agencies were finalizing the shared checklist, and the checklist, per one official who saw it, was the first thing all twelve of them had ever agreed on completely.