BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The 27 countries of the European Union reached an agreement in principle via their foreign ministers on Monday to sanction Jewish settlers who are violent towards Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Until now, the Twenty-Seven had never taken such a joint initiative against Israeli settlers deemed responsible for violence.
France decided individually in February to ban entry into its territory against 28 Israeli settlers. The United States and Great Britain have also taken similar sanctions.
“A solid compromise has been found at the technical level and I hope it will be continued until the next full adoption, but the political agreement is there,” said Josep Borrell, EU representative for external affairs, to journalists following this ministerial meeting in Brussels.
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Many European countries have criticized the increasing violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since Hamas’s attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7.
The EU will impose new sanctions against Hamas before implementing measures against Israeli settlers, diplomats said.
This two-step sequence is considered important by countries close to Israel such as Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, which refuse to put the Palestinian Islamist movement and Israeli settlers on the same level.
Countries that blocked the proposed sanctions against settlers have now agreed to abstain, Josep Borrell said.
The list of affected settlers has yet to be officially ratified and they will be hit with visa bans and asset freezes.
(Written by Andrew Gray, John Irish and Sudip Kar-Gupta, French version Bertrand Boucey, edited by Tangi Salaün)
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