EU approves new sanctions on Israeli settlers over West Bank violence ⁰

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’s done. The European Union is sanctioning today the main Israeli organisations guilty of supporting the extremist and violent colonisation of the West Bank, as well as their leaders,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot wrote on social media.

“These most serious and intolerable acts must cease without delay.”

Israel responded by denouncing the planned EU sanctions as “arbitrary and political” and vowed to stand ‘”for the right of Jews” to settle in the West Bank.

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

But the ouster of the nationalist leader and Israel ally, by rival 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 Palestinian militant group Hamas.

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

There has been a surge in deadly attacks by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank 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 among member states to take further steps against Israel, such as curbing trade ties.

A number of countries are pushing to ban products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

“The work on trade measures for products coming from the illegal settlements moves forward,” an EU diplomat said.

Source: AFP