{"id":79574,"date":"2026-09-02T17:11:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/79574\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T17:11:28","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:11:28","slug":"spain-urges-eu-to-act-against-israeli-far-right-ministers-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/79574\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain urges EU to act against Israeli far-right ministers \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is \u201chigh time\u201d the European Union<\/a> agrees to institute a travel ban and other sanctions on extremist Israeli <\/a>politicians Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, Spanish<\/a> foreign minister Jos\u00e9 Manuel Albares has said. <\/p>\n

Ben-Gvir, a far-right minister in Binyamin Netanyahu\u2019s <\/a>government, has frequently attracted controversy for statements attacking and dehumanising Palestinians <\/a>and pro-Gaza campaigners. <\/p>\n

Several EU states, including Spain<\/a>, the Republic and the Netherlands, have introduced national restrictions to prohibit Ben-Gvir and Smotrich from entering their territory, in effect designating the extremist politicians as persona non grata. <\/p>\n

Proposed EU-level sanctions on the two Israeli ministers have been blocked on different occasions by former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/a> and the current hard-right Czech government. <\/p>\n

Sanctions to blacklist individuals, which would include a travel ban, need the support of all 27 EU governments to be approved. <\/p>\n

Speaking on Wednesday, Albares said it was \u201chigh time\u201d the EU placed sanctions on Ben-Gvir and Smotrich. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you say you are a minister of a democracy, you behave like such. You don\u2019t say things that are outrageous and against international law. And if you want to have a normal relationship with the EU, you have to behave like the minister of a democratic government,\u201d said the Spanish politician. <\/p>\n

EU governments had to come around to the idea of banning goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories, Albares said. <\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s left-wing government had imposed a national ban cutting off trade with the occupied territories, he said. \u201cIf we really believe in the two-state solution, it\u2019s not only about saying, it\u2019s doing things,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The bloc\u2019s foreign ministers discussed stalled efforts to make Europe\u2019s influence felt and restrain Israel from expanding settlements in the West Bank. <\/p>\n

Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee said it was important the EU responded to Israel\u2019s E1 settlement plan, which would cleave East Jerusalem from the West Bank and \u201cirreversibly damage\u201d the prospects of a future two-state solution. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to move, we need to respond, particularly to breaches of international law,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

The Irish Government is hosting the informal \u201cGymnich\u201d meeting of foreign ministers in Druids Glen, Co Wicklow, as part of its Council of the EU presidency, a deal-making role that passes between member states every six months. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is \u201chigh time\u201d the European Union agrees to institute a travel ban and other sanctions on extremist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[29898,29899,29900,29229,29901,8114,3873,29902,2881,6765,29903,5522,10412,2164,29904,1114,6143,29905,1039,29906,23024,9806,5457,273,29907,29908,17,528,1152,18040,4585],"class_list":["post-79574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-29898","tag-29899","tag-29900","tag-29229","tag-affairs","tag-albares","tag-an","tag-assumed","tag-belgium","tag-brussels","tag-ceremony","tag-council","tag-during","tag-eu","tag-fifth","tag-for","tag-foreign","tag-inauguration","tag-jose","tag-jul","tag-july","tag-manuel","tag-minister","tag-news","tag-presidency","tag-rotating","tag-spain","tag-spains","tag-spanish","tag-speaks","tag-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}