{"id":41298,"date":"2026-05-13T21:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T21:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/41298\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T21:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T21:23:08","slug":"eu-approves-sanctions-on-violent-israeli-settlers-critics-say-its-not-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/41298\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Approves Sanctions on Violent Israeli Settlers. Critics Say It\u2019s Not Enough."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Israeli settler groups committing violence against Palestinians in the West Bank could now be sanctioned by the European Union, after 27 foreign ministers of EU countries greenlit imposing sanctions on violent settlers and settler groups on Monday. The ministers also decided to sanction Hamas leaders. The decision came at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, which discussed major Middle East political portfolios.<\/p>\n

The decision was announced by the EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who announced on X<\/a> that it was \u201chigh time for us to move from deadlock to delivery,\u201d adding that \u201cextremisms and violence carry consequences.\u201d French FM Jean No\u00ebl Barrot said that the EU decided to sanction groups and leaders of Israeli settlers responsible for \u201cserious and intolerable acts that must cease without delay.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Israel, the decision was received with outrage from the entire political establishment. Israel\u2019s Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar, called the decision \u201carbitrary and political,\u201d denouncing what he described as an \u201coutrageous comparison\u201d between Israeli settlers and Hamas members. Israel\u2019s hardline National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who himself comes from the violent settler movement, called the EU \u201cantisemitic.\u201d Ben-Gvir also called upon the government to approve the bill presented by his own party to ban banks in Israel from implementing the sanctions.<\/p>\n

Since October 2023, Israeli settler groups have carried out up to 3,000 attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the UN<\/a>. These attacks<\/a> have expelled at least 28 Palestinian rural communities, including 12,000 Palestinians out of their homes, according to the al-Baidar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights in Palestine.<\/p>\n

Legal and technical work is yet to be done for the sanctions themselves to go into effect. The sanctions will include<\/a> three individual settlers and four settler groups, although the specific names haven\u2019t been yet disclosed. In the meantime, Europe continues to hold partnership agreements with Israel, including in military and academic cooperation.<\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n


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\n 200 masked settlers descended on the West Bank on March 22, throwing Molotov cocktails and terrorizing Palestinians.\n <\/p>\n

But why is the EU sanctioning settler groups now? For European Palestine solidarity activists and international law experts, the sanctioning of individual settlers is a way for Israel to avoid more serious sanctions against the state, which is the ultimate enabler of settler violence, which takes place as part of a broader state policy of annexation.<\/p>\n

Why Now?<\/p>\n

The last time European Foreign Ministers came close to agreeing on sanctions against settlers was in July 2024, after the Biden administration and the UK sanctioned four Israelis involved in violence against Palestinians in February of that year. <\/p>\n

Other countries followed suit. France imposed sanctions on 28 Israelis involved in settler violence, as well as other non-European countries like Australia, Canada, and Japan. In April 2024, the EU itself imposed sanctions on the four settlers sanctioned by Biden and the UK.<\/p>\n

But ever since, the EU has been unable to produce a consensus over sanctioning any part of the Israeli system, which needs the consent of all 27 member states. The former Hungarian far-right government of Viktor Orban, which was allied with Israel, had voted to break the consensus on multiple occasions. That changed last month, when Orban\u2019s Fidesz party lost Hungary\u2019s elections, bringing the country\u2019s longstanding opposition to European sanctions to an end.<\/p>\n

But sanctioning settlers is only a part of the political debate in Europe over the relationship with Israel. The bigger story is whether the EU will consider reviewing its longstanding economic relationship with Israel. The EU remains Israel\u2019s most important trade partner, surpassing the U.S. and China, with exchange between both Israel and the EU reaching $42.6 billion<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n

These relations date back to the 1995 \u201cassociation agreement\u201d signed by Israel and the EU, which established a free trade area and granted Israel preferential access to the EU market, entering into force in 2000. During the past two years, multiple voices have demanded that the agreement be reconsidered in light of the Gaza genocide, yet several EU countries have formed a bloc opposing the move, including Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Hungary. Meanwhile, Spain, Belgium, Slovenia, Ireland, and the Netherlands separately imposed national bans on Israeli imports originating from West Bank settlements. <\/p>\n

For Brussels-based Palestinian international law attorney Lama Nazeeh, the sanctions announced on Monday are little more than \u201ccosmetic.\u201d In recent years, pressure from human rights groups has demanded more substantial action from the EU, particularly in reviewing the economic agreements between Europe and Israel, Nazeeh told Mondoweiss.<\/p>\n

Such a reconsideration of the nature of the economic relationship with Israel, \u201cwould constitute a real form of pressure,\u201d she said, whereas \u201csanctioning three or four individuals will not stop the violent campaign to expel Palestinians in the West Bank, with the support of the Israeli government.\u201d <\/p>\n

Nazeeh added that the EU has in the past taken much more decisive action in imposing sanctions on countries that violate international norms, pointing to European sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

For Nazeeh, the EU \u201cis not experiencing a shift in policy, but rather catching up with reality.\u201d That reality is one in which Israel no longer enjoys unconditional impunity or indifference in the court of public opinion.<\/p>\n

According to Mahmooud Nawajaa, coordinator of Palestine\u2019s Boycott National Committee, \u201cthe recent sanctions are an attempt by European governments to escape their real responsibility for Israel\u2019s violations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nawajaa told Mondoweiss that \u201cthe EU not only continues to provide Israel with special commercial status, and with military, academic, and cultural cover as it continues to displace Palestinians, but it also gives a pass to its Prime Minister, who is wanted by international judicial bodies for war crimes.\u201d For Nawajaa, the announced sanctions \u201ccan\u2019t stop settlers\u2019 violence, which is much more structural and systematic,\u201d and won\u2019t be curbed by sanctioning four or five individuals.<\/p>\n

However, Nawajaa recognized that the announcement of sanctions comes as \u201ca response to citizen pressure on European governments, which has been mounting in the past two years.\u201d Nawajaa said that while the sanctions don\u2019t reflect a real shift in European politics, \u201cthey indicate that grassroots mobilization and organized solidarity with Palestine can force governments to take action.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Anne Tuallion, a French Palestine solidarity activist, Monday\u2019s sanctions constituted \u201cthe bare minimum of the bare minimum,\u201d and that the sanctioning of individual settlers was \u201ca smokescreen to further delay real action towards the Israeli state as such, while Palestinians continue to have their lands stolen, their lives threatened, and their rights denied.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 2023, settler attacks have practically ended all Palestinian presence in the eastern slopes of the West Bank and much of the Jordan Valley, grabbing most farmland from dozens of Palestinian towns and villages and severely impacting<\/a> the agricultural sector. Since the beginning of 2026, settler attacks have killed<\/a> at least 10 Palestinians<\/a> in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

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