On Monday, the head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, declared that the 27 European Union (EU) foreign ministers had approved sanctions against the perpetrators of violent settlements. Diplomats also approved new sanctions against the leaders of the Palestinian Hamas terrorist group.
“It was high time to break the deadlock and take action,” said Kallas, who had recently explained that this impasse could have been overcome thanks to the defeat of Hungarian Viktor Orbán.
However, there are still technical and legal work to be done within the EU before the sanctions are officially imposed. These will include asset freezes and entry bans.
Israel strongly rejects this decision,” said Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on social media X, insisting that the EU had imposed these sanctions “arbitrarily and politically due to their political opinions and without any basis.”
“A completely biased moral equivalence is equally scandalous,” he continued.
A EU official told The Times of Israel that the sanctions against Hamas, adopted the same day, were not meant to establish any comparison but were a condition set by some member states to support the sanctions against the extreme settler leaders.
“Israel has defended, defends, and will continue to defend the right of Jews to settle in the heart of our country,” Saar continued.
“No other people in the world has such an ancient and documented right to its land as the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. It is a moral and historical right, recognized by international law, and one that no actor can take away from the Jewish people.”
The sanctions do not target settlements in general but rather specific Jewish extremists accused of attacking Palestinians while flouting international and Israeli law.
