On Wednesday Spain disqualified academics from Israeli from competing in a solar power design event, due to the fact that their university falls into the West Bank region. This is part of a new set of sanctions against Israel relating to its current settlement policy.

The team was representing the Samarian Ariel University Centre in the Solar Decathlon, which is an international competition between 20 universities to develop the best design for solar powered homes, according to a House Ministry official.

The action comes as a result of current EU policy that opposes Israel occupying land that it deems belongs to Palestine, which Spain is supporting.

The West Bank university team made the cut last year but it was not noted until this year that the team was not actually located in Israel, but on occupied land.