EU agrees to sanctions on Israeli settlers

European Union foreign ministers on Monday agreed new sanctions on Israeli settlers over violence against Palestinians, as a change of government in Hungary ended months of blockage.

“It was high time we move from deadlock to delivery,” EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas said in announcing the green light. “Extremisms and violence carry consequences.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the EU was “sanctioning the main Israeli organisations guilty of supporting the extremist and violent colonisation of the West Bank, as well as their leaders”.

“These most serious and intolerable acts must cease without delay,” he wrote on social media.

The move in response to rising violence and settlement expansion in the Israeli-occupied West Bank had been stalled by Hungary’s former prime minister Viktor Orban.

But the ouster of the nationalist leader and Israel ally by Peter Magyar now appears to have paved the way for the veto to be lifted.

EU officials said seven settlers or settler organisations would be blacklisted. The bloc also agreed to sanction representatives from the Palestinian group Hamas.

Israel condemned the new sanctions, asserting that Jews have the right to settle in the occupied West Bank.

“The European Union has chosen, in an arbitrary and political manner, to impose sanctions on Israeli citizens and entities because of their political views and without any basis,” Foreign Minister Gideon Saar posted on X.

The occupied West Bank has been gripped by almost daily violence involving Israeli troops and settlers since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.

There has been a surge in deadly West Bank attacks by Israeli settlers since the start of the Iran war on February 28, Palestinian officials and the United Nations have said.

While the EU is moving ahead with the sanctions on Israeli settlers, there remains no consensus yet among member states to take further steps against Israel such as curbing trade ties.

Foreign ministers meeting in Brussels discussed calls to ban products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Italy’s Antonio Tajani said that the EU’s executive would now make a proposal on the move and then the bloc would see if it had enough backing from member states.

Agence France-Presse