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Right-wing Israeli settler near Nablus in the northern West Bank.
(Archive) © Ilia Yefimovich/dpa
Violent acts by radical Israeli settlers in the West Bank are seen as an obstacle to efforts to find a long-term peace solution in the Middle East conflict.
The EU now wants to set an example.
Brussels – The EU wants to impose sanctions against radical Israeli settlers in the West Bank for the first time.
Foreign ministers of the member states agreed on corresponding plans at a meeting in Brussels on Monday, as EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced.
They will now be formalized in the coming days.
According to information from the German Press Agency, Hungary announced that it no longer wanted to block the move.
The background to the sanctions plans are violent acts by extremist settlers against Palestinians - especially after the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7th.
The attacks, like the settlement construction itself, are seen as one of the obstacles to efforts to find a long-term peace solution in the Middle East conflict.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said it was crucial for Germany to make it clear that both were not in accordance with international law.
With the sanctions, the EU is following the example of the USA.
They have already imposed punitive measures aimed at extremist Israeli settlers.
The USA accuses those affected, among other things, of taking part in violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.
Sanction instrument to punish human rights violations
The EU punitive measures are to be imposed using the EU sanctions instrument to punish serious human rights violations.
Those affected will then have to have their accounts and other assets frozen in the EU.
In addition, people are no longer allowed to enter the EU or do business with EU citizens.
The names of those affected are to be published in the EU Official Journal after the formal sanction decision is still pending.
According to information from the German Press Agency, the first step is a single-digit number of people against whom there are complaints, but so far no criminal proceedings from the Israeli side.
Ideally, according to diplomats, the EU sanctions should lead to the Israeli judiciary becoming more committed to prosecuting violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian villages and olive groves.
Hungary gives up blockade
The sanctions against settlers should actually have been decided weeks ago.
However, the Hungarian government, which is considered particularly Israel-friendly in the EU, only signaled at top level on Monday that it no longer wants to block the plans.
Part of the agreement is that there are also new punitive measures against Hamas.
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One reason for the tense situation in the West Bank is that Israel has been expanding disputed settlements there since it conquered the area in the Six-Day War in 1967.
The number of settlers in the area that lies between Israel's heartland and Jordan has now risen to around half a million.
Including East Jerusalem there are even 700,000.
The settlers live among around three million Palestinians.
Sanctions also against Hamas
The United Nations has classified these settlements as a major obstacle to a peace settlement because they leave little contiguous territory for the Palestinians in a possible two-state solution.
Another reason for the tense situation is the Israeli army's raids on West Bank cities due to attacks by Palestinians against Israelis.
EU sanctions have been imposed several times in the past against Hamas and its representatives.
Most recently, the EU put the commander of the armed wing, Mohammed Deif, and his deputy, Marwan Issa, who has since died in an Israeli air strike, on its terror list.
Both are considered to be the planners of the unprecedented massacre in Israel on October 7th, as a result of which around 1,200 Israelis were killed and around 240 people were abducted to the Gaza Strip.
Hamas itself was classified as a terrorist organization by the EU around two decades ago.
dpa