The European Union has agreed to place economic sanctions on several extremist Israeli settlers.
A meeting of the union’s 27 foreign ministers in Brussels approved a package of sanctions blacklisting a number of individual settlers behind violent attacks in occupied Palestinian territories. The identities of those sanctioned have yet to be disclosed.
The sanctions package – the first in almost two years – had been blocked for months by the Hungarian government which lost an election in April.
Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar said on X the EU had “chosen, in an arbitrary and political manner, to impose sanctions on Israeli citizens and entities because of their political views and without any basis.”
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign affairs envoy who chairs the minister-level meetings, said her officials would work with the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, on “presenting proposals” to address trade coming from settlements.
The former Estonian prime minister indicated a proposal in that area would have to come from her colleague, EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic. “I can’t draft it, I’m sorry,” she told reporters.
Speaking earlier, Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee said there had been a “very clear shift” among governments in recent weeks towards taking action against Israel.
Senior officials in Brussels are drawing up possible options to curb the trade on goods coming from illegal Israeli settlements, which it is understood includes proposing an outright EU-wide ban, steep tariffs, or import quotas.
“For the first time I believe in quite some time there was a desire by many member states to do more to respond to what is an increasing level of violence in the West Bank, to respond to what is just unacceptable behaviour by Israel,” McEntee said.
The last time the EU was able to agree to jointly sanction extremist settlers was July 2024.
That package of measures included asset freezes and the economic blacklisting of five extremist settlers and three organisations, including a violent group that regularly prevented humanitarian aid trucks from delivering food and water to Gaza.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee. Photograph: Sam Boal/Collins
EU sanctions require the unanimous support of all 27 governments to be approved. Viktor Orbán’s former far-right government in Hungary had been the only country to block sanctions targeting settlers.
The swearing-in of Péter Magyar’s new government in Budapest at the weekend had raised hopes the block would be lifted.
There had been a proposal to sanction two extremist Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, but it was dropped due to opposition from several states.
Kallas said she was unsure if the required qualified majority of support existed for other measures, such as banning trade with illegal settlements built in occupied Palestinian territories.
“We also need to move forward with sanctioning of Israeli ministers that are driving these settlements,” Sweden’s foreign minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said.
Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary and others have made up a coalition of states shielding Israel from EU retaliation. The group has opposed calls to suspend an EU-Israel free trade agreement, or halt trade coming from Israeli settlements.
Those decisions would not require unanimous agreement, but instead the backing of a sizeable majority of EU states. However, that threshold of support has never been reached, even during the height of Israel’s two-year bombardment of Gaza after the October 7th, 2023 attacks by Hamas militants.
McEntee said Ireland, along with Spain, Slovenia and other allies, was pushing for the EU to prohibit “illegal” trade coming from Israeli settlements.
Europe could not be a “bystander” to the escalating violence in the West Bank, and the “catastrophic” humanitarian situation in Gaza, where she said not enough aid was entering the Palestinian enclave.
The Irish Minister said she would be calling for an “options paper” to be on the table at the next EU council meeting in June, to propose ways to end illegal settlement trade.
Italy is seen as a swing state whose support would be crucial in building a large enough majority for an EU ban, or tariffs, on trade coming from illegal Israeli settlements.
Spain, Slovenia, Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands have separately been pursuing national import bans on goods coming from the settlements.