The city council of Brussels approved a motion to ban the public procurement of goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements.

The motion, brought by Benoit Hellings, a councilor in the capital of Brussels, was adopted unanimously in a vote late Monday.

The motion asks the local authority to ensure that its purchases do not benefit companies working in conditions that do not respect international law, human rights, or environmental law.

In 2015, the EU issued new guidelines for the labeling of products from illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israeli and Palestinian estimates indicate about 650,000 settlers are living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts in the occupied West Bank.

Under international law, all Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are considered illegal.

Palestinians accuse Israel of systematically working to Judaize East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, and to obliterate its Arab and Islamic identity.

For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world's third-holiest site. Jews, for their part, call the area the Temple Mount, saying it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move never recognized by the international community.

Britain, the European Union and more than a dozen partner countries including Australia and Canada have called on Israel to take immediate and concrete steps to tackle settler violence in the West Bank.