The message from Brussels: sanctions on settler organizations, avoiding further measures

However, according to reports from Brussels, the foreign ministers did not agree today on an initiative to significantly limit trade with settlements and impose bans on the import of produce from Jewish communities beyond the Green Line. This proposal was submitted last month by France and Sweden, and is supported by a number of countries critical of Israel. This step may be considered in the near future. They also did not agree to the demand of several countries – mainly Spain, Slovenia and Ireland – to suspend the association agreement with the European Union, which is, among other things, the basis for free trade relations.

Israeli officials previously told “Globes” that the list of individuals and organizations on which the sanctions will be imposed also includes organizations such as “Amana” and “Regavim”. The Union has not yet published the list of organizations that will now be under sanctions, but said that they are seven organizations. At the same time, the European Union also included Hamas officials in its sanctions list.

Thanks to Italy and Germany: trade with the settlements was not restricted

“The European Union’s foreign ministers today approved imposing sanctions on Israeli settlers for violence against Palestinians. They also agreed on new sanctions on senior Hamas officials,” wrote the European Union’s foreign relations commissioner, Kaya Callas. “The time has come for us to move from stagnation to action. Extremism and violence have consequences.”

The French foreign minister celebrated the decision in a message he published from the discussions on the X network. “It’s done! The European Union today imposes sanctions on the main Israeli organizations guilty of supporting the extreme and violent colonization of the West Bank, as well as on their heads. These serious and intolerable acts must stop without delay. The EU imposes sanctions on the main leaders of Hamas, who are responsible for the worst anti-Semitic massacre in our history since The Holocaust, during which 51 French people were murdered. This is a terrorist movement that must be disarmed and excluded from any participation in the future of Palestine. No one can undermine the vision that France revived last year in New York, of two recognized and respected countries living side by side in peace and security.

While in the battle for sanctions on settler organizations Israel lost due to the fact that the new Hungarian government no longer vetoed the initiative, the fact that no further decisions were made shows that there is still support on the Israeli side among Germany and Italy. Despite harsh criticism of the Netanyahu government, freezing of the renewal of a security cooperation agreement and open criticism of Israel’s actions in southern Lebanon, it seems that Italy does not at this stage support the step demanded by France and Sweden – along with other countries – to limit trade with the settlements. Italy plays a central role because, next to Germany, it creates a “blocking block” in terms of population that prevents a privileged majority from those who support the move.

Sa’ar: “Distorted comparison”

Already at the previous gathering of foreign ministers, the commissioner for foreign relations, Kaya Kalas, reported that “there is no change” in the countries’ position regarding the radical step of suspending part or all of the association agreement. The governments of Spain and Ireland often demand the move, and the Spanish prime minister has made the issue part of his political agenda in appearances across the country in recent months. A petition of more than a million signatories demands that the European Union discuss the issue, and it will probably be accepted and force the Commission and the European Parliament to address the issue in the coming months.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar wrote in response to Network X that “Israel strongly rejects the decision to impose sanctions against Israeli citizens and organizations. The European Union has chosen, in an arbitrary and political manner, to impose sanctions against Israeli citizens and entities due to their political positions and without any basis. Equally outrageous is the intolerable parallel that the European Union has chosen to make between Israeli citizens and Hamas terrorists. This is a completely morally distorted comparison. Israel stood, stands and will stand for the right of Jews to settle in the heart of our homeland. There is no nation in the world that has such a long-standing right over its land as the people of Israel have over the land of Israel.