EU Approves Sanctions on Violent Israeli Settlers. Critics Say It’s Not Enough. |
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Israeli settler groups committing violence against Palestinians in the West Bank could now be sanctioned by the European Union, after 27 foreign ministers of EU countries greenlit imposing sanctions on violent settlers and settler groups on Monday. The ministers also decided to sanction Hamas leaders. The decision came at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, which discussed major Middle East political portfolios.
The decision was announced by the EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who announced on X that it was “high time for us to move from deadlock to delivery,” adding that “extremisms and violence carry consequences.” French FM Jean Noël Barrot said that the EU decided to sanction groups and leaders of Israeli settlers responsible for “serious and intolerable acts that must cease without delay.”
In Israel, the decision was received with outrage from the entire political establishment. Israel’s Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar, called the decision “arbitrary and political,” denouncing what he described as an “outrageous comparison” between Israeli settlers and Hamas members. Israel’s hardline National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who himself comes from the violent settler movement, called the EU “antisemitic.” Ben-Gvir also called upon the government to approve the bill presented by his own party to ban banks in Israel from implementing the sanctions.
Since October 2023, Israeli settler groups have carried out up to 3,000 attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the UN. These attacks have expelled at least 28 Palestinian rural communities, including 12,000 Palestinians out of their homes, according to the al-Baidar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights in Palestine.
Legal and technical work is yet to be done for the sanctions themselves to go into effect. The sanctions will include three individual settlers and four settler groups, although the specific names haven’t been yet disclosed. In the meantime, Europe continues to hold partnership agreements with Israel, including in military and........