{"id":70895,"date":"2026-05-14T11:54:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T11:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/70895\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T11:54:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T11:54:01","slug":"eus-top-diplomat-hopeful-bloc-will-vote-to-sanction-violent-west-bank-settlers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/70895\/","title":{"rendered":"EU\u2019s top diplomat \u2018hopeful\u2019 bloc will vote to sanction violent West Bank settlers"},"content":{"rendered":"

European Union countries will likely be able to reach an agreement on Monday on sanctions against extremist settlers in the West Bank, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said before a meeting of the bloc\u2019s ministers of foreign affairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI expect political agreement on the sanctions on violent settlers, hopefully we will get there,\u201d Kallas said, while admitting that it was still not entirely clear the required unanimity would be found for the proposals.<\/p>\n

Kallas said the change of government in Hungary, with the ouster of former prime minister Viktor Orban by rival and EU supporter Peter Magyar<\/a>, paved the way for the veto to be lifted.<\/p>\n

EU officials said seven settlers or settler organizations were set to be blacklisted. The bloc was also set to sanction representatives from the Hamas terrorist group.<\/p>\n

Attitudes toward Israel among EU member states, already hardened over its conduct in the war in Gaza, sparked by the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre, stiffened further after Israeli ground operations were launched into Lebanon in March \u2014 in response to the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group\u2019s missile fire on Israel \u2014 and after the Knesset passed a new law on the death penalty for Palestinian terror convicts in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

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Last month, several EU states rejected a push by Spain, Slovenia and Ireland to suspend\u00a0the bloc\u2019s cooperation agreement<\/a> with Israel.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"
\n\t\tPalestinians inspect a burned vehicle following an attack by Israeli extremist settlers in the Wadi Rahim area of Hebron in the West Bank, May 1, 2026. (Wisam Hashlamoun\/Flash90)<\/p>\n

Extremist settlers, sometimes in mobs, have been recorded assaulting Palestinians, torching cars, and damaging property. Arrests in such cases are rare, and convictions are even less common, though the attacks take place on a near-daily basis.<\/p>\n

Critics accuse the government of turning a blind eye to the violent attacks, which have become increasingly deadly in recent years.<\/p>\n

The IDF has also faced criticism for often standing by while attacks unfold \u2014 with troops sometimes actively participating \u2014 or failing to prosecute those responsible.<\/p>\n

IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth recently warned about the phenomenon, which he termed \u201cJewish terrorism.\u201d<\/p>\n

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir last month issued a sharp condemnation of settler violence, calling attacks against Palestinian civilians and soldiers in the West Bank \u201cmorally and ethically unacceptable\u201d and a major strategic impediment.<\/p>\n


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\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"European Union countries will likely be able to reach an agreement on Monday on sanctions against extremist settlers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[23861,444,442,39115,39114],"class_list":{"0":"post-70895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kaja-kallas","8":"tag-eu-european-union","9":"tag-eu-sanctions","10":"tag-kaja-kallas","11":"tag-settler-violence","12":"tag-settlers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116572799856955262","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}