The EU has agreed sanctions on violent Israeli settlers, ending a years-long deadlock over the issue but still taking only a \u201cbaby step\u201d according to one MEP.<\/p>\n
Kaja Kallas, the EU\u2019s foreign policy chief, said on Monday: \u201cViolence and extremism carry consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there was still no consensus among the 27 member states on more hard-hitting trade sanctions.<\/p>\n
France\u2019s foreign minister, Jean-No\u00ebl Barrot, said the EU was \u201csanctioning the main Israeli organisations guilty of supporting the extremist and violent colonisation of the West Bank, as well as their leaders\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese most serious and intolerable acts must cease without delay,\u201d he wrote on social media.<\/p>\n
The full list of names has not been published following Monday\u2019s agreement in principle but is understood not to include two extremist Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich<\/a>. The pair were put under UK sanctions last June for their \u201crepeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities\u201d.<\/p>\n The deadlock was broken after Hungary\u2019s new pro-EU government<\/a> lifted its veto on the sanctions, which had been blocked by the previous prime minister, Viktor Orb\u00e1n. The EU would also sanction leading Hamas figures, Kallas said.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s foreign minister, Gideon Sa\u2019ar, said there was no basis for the EU sanctions. Photograph: Ralf Hirschberger\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s foreign minister, Gideon Sa\u2019ar, said the EU had chosen in \u201can arbitrary and political manner, to impose sanctions on Israeli citizens and entities because of their political views and without any basis\u201d.<\/p>\n The measures against a small number of settlers fall short of what some member states wanted. France and Sweden have called for tariffs on imported products from illegal settlements. \u201cWe believe that the EU urgently needs to increase the pressure on Israel to halt its settlement policy and practices,\u201d the two countries wrote in a joint paper.<\/p>\n Sweden\u2019s foreign minister, Maria Malmer Stenergard, said putting tariffs on products from illegal settlements was \u201cthe most realistic proposal\u201d.<\/p>\n Banning products requires unanimity among the 27 member states, whereas tariffs can be imposed by a majority vote.<\/p>\n Under the EU-Israel association agreement, goods from the occupied territories miss out on preferential terms but trade is not prohibited.<\/p>\n Kallas, who is also a vice-president of the European Commission, said she could not issue a draft law to impose tariffs on goods from illegal settlements: \u201cI raised this issue that member states wanted this proposal. I asked [for] this, but the proposal is not there. And I can\u2019t draft it.\u201d<\/p>\n Barry Andrews, an Irish centrist MEP, who chairs the European parliament\u2019s development committee, said EU foreign ministers had taken a \u201cwelcome (baby) step\u201d. Writing on X he called for enforcement of labelling and banning of settler products, as well as ending research cooperation with Israel. He added: \u201cUltimately, only a review of the EU-Israel association agreement, with view to suspension, will have a major impact.\u201d<\/p>\n Amid surging violence in the West Bank and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza<\/a>, the EU is under renewed pressure to use its leverage to push Israel\u2019s government to change course.<\/p>\n Former senior EU diplomats and officials called last week for sanctions against all individuals and entities engaged in illegal settlements, including planners, lawyers, banks and other professionals involved in the proposed E1 settlement.<\/p>\n