{"id":952852,"date":"2026-05-11T15:19:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T15:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/952852\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T15:19:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T15:19:16","slug":"eu-formally-green-lights-sanctions-against-israeli-settlers-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/952852\/","title":{"rendered":"EU formally green-lights sanctions against Israeli settlers \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sanctions target individuals linked to violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, but several member states are already pushing for tougher measures. France and Sweden are backing<\/a> restrictions on trade with settlements, while broader proposals such as suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement remain deeply divisive inside the bloc.<\/p>\n

“We had discussions on the trade issues, limiting trade with the illegal Israeli settlements,” Kallas told<\/a> reporters after the meeting. “There was a call by many member states to take this forward, so we will continue to work with the Commission on presenting proposals.”<\/p>\n

Israel swiftly pushed back. <\/p>\n

Foreign Minister Gideon Saar slammed<\/a> the decision as “arbitrary and political,” accusing the EU of targeting Israeli citizens “because of their political views and without any basis.” “Israel has stood, stands, and will continue to stand for the right of Jews to settle in the heart of our homeland,” Saar wrote on X.<\/p>\n

EU diplomats had expected<\/a> the sanctions to finally clear after Hungary\u2019s change in government and incoming Prime Minister P\u00e9ter Magyar signaled he would not stand in the way<\/a> of broadly supported sanction packages, unlike his predecessor, Viktor Orb\u00e1n, who spent months blocking<\/a> the package despite support from every other EU country.<\/p>\n

Arriving in Brussels earlier Monday, Luxembourg Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel said<\/a> the EU could no longer keep “closing our eyes,” adding that “there is no measure that we are able to take, simply because there are always countries that are hesitant.”<\/p>\n

Dutch Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen said the Netherlands was pushing for “a full ban on products from the illegal settlements,” while Finland\u2019s Elina Valtonen said she looked forward to \u201csanctioning violent settlers on the West Bank.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agreement marks the first time since the outbreak of the Gaza crisis that the EU has managed to unanimously back retributive measures against Israel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sanctions target individuals linked to violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, but several member states are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":952853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,769,805,36,2194,2190,837,7163,13302,2596,1215,2663,812,3053,265954,1201,1781,265955],"class_list":{"0":"post-952852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-finland","12":"tag-foreign-policy","13":"tag-france","14":"tag-gaza","15":"tag-hungary","16":"tag-israel","17":"tag-israeli-palestinian-conflict","18":"tag-jean-noel-barrot","19":"tag-kaja-kallas","20":"tag-luxembourg","21":"tag-sanctions","22":"tag-sweden","23":"tag-the-netherlands","24":"tag-tom-berendsen","25":"tag-trade","26":"tag-viktor-orban","27":"tag-xavier-bettel"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116556619259889320","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=952852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/952853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=952852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=952852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=952852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}