European Union foreign ministers have supported the imposition of sanctions against several Israeli settlers in the West Bank and the organisations that support them. We are talking about those who resort to violence, said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.
Sanctions will also be imposed against senior officials of the Palestinian group Hamas, recognised in the US and EU as a terrorist group and responsible in particular for the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar sharply criticised the sanctions against his country’s citizens, highlighting the unacceptability of comparing Israeli settlers and Hamas officials. An unnamed EU official told The Times of Israel that the imposition of sanctions against Hamas members was a condition of part of the EU countries, without which they would not have supported sanctions against settlers.
A draft of sanctions against settlers was proposed some time ago, but Hungary under the Viktor Orban government blocked the move. With the arrival of the new government in Budapest, the sanctions were supported.
“The European Union is today imposing sanctions against the main Israeli organisations responsible for supporting the extremist and violent colonisation of the West Bank, as well as their leaders. These extremely grave and unacceptable actions must stop immediately,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot wrote.
The sanctions list is expected to include seven individuals and organisations. The names have not yet been released as technical work and formal approval of the sanctions by the EU Council are still to be done.
Israel’s foreign minister criticised the EU decision, saying that Israeli citizens were being punished for their “political views”. He also noted that the actions of Israeli settlers are legal.
The EU notes that the sanctions are being imposed specifically against those the organisation believes are responsible for violence against Palestinians, not settlers per se.
About 500,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank of Jordan, which most UN member states consider to be Israeli-occupied territory of the future Palestinian state (in Israel these territories are officially called “the district of Judea and Samaria”). Their number is growing every year. The number of violent clashes between settlers and Palestinian Arabs is also growing. The settlement issue is one of the key contentious issues in the Middle East peace process.
EU to impose sanctions on several Israeli settlers in the West Bank