EU Approves Sanctions on Israeli Settlers
The twenty-seven foreign ministers of the European Union approved new sanctions on Monday targeting Israeli settlers in response to escalating violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
According to the United Nations, there has been a notable increase in attacks by settlers since the onset of the Gaza war in October 2023.
Settlements, which are considered illegal under international law, are established on Israeli-occupied land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem—territories Palestinians claim for a future state.
The EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, stated, "it was high time we move from deadlock to delivery... extremisms and violence carry consequences."
A recent change in the Hungarian government ended months of delays in the EU's plans for additional sanctions. These plans had been previously blocked by former right-wing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a close ally of Israel.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot expressed on social media that the EU was "sanctioning today the main Israeli organisations guilty of supporting the extremist and violent colonisation of the West Bank."
Israeli Government Response
Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar criticized the decision, describing it as "arbitrary and political," and affirmed that Israel would continue to "stand for the right of Jews to settle in the heart of our homeland."
Successive Israeli governments have permitted and encouraged the growth of settlements. Expansion has notably increased since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022, leading a right-wing, pro-settler coalition, coinciding with the start of the Gaza war triggered by Hamas's armed attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
There remains technical and legal work within the EU before the sanctions are officially implemented.
Details of Sanctions
EU officials indicated that seven settlers or settler organisations would be sanctioned. Additionally, the EU agreed to impose sanctions on more representatives from Hamas.
Israeli media reports suggest that the sanctioned individuals and organisations include Daniella Weiss, who is already sanctioned by the United Kingdom and is known as the "godmother" of the settler movement.
The organisations reportedly sanctioned include Nachala and Regavim, which promote settlements, as well as HaShomer Yosh and Amana, groups that assist in financing and supporting unauthorised settlements known as outposts.
Meir Deutsch, CEO of Regavim, and Avichai Suissa, CEO of HaShomer Yosh, are also reportedly on the sanctions list. Suissa was sanctioned by the United States in 2024 but was removed from the sanctions list during Donald Trump's administration.
Background on Settlements and Violence
Since Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, it has constructed approximately 160 settlements housing around 700,000 Jews. Reports of violence by settlers against Palestinians occur nearly daily.
The United Nations documented over 1,800 settler attacks in 2025 that resulted in casualties or property damage, affecting approximately 280 communities across the West Bank.
Recent incidents include allegations that Israeli settlers forced Palestinians to exhume a grave, an act condemned as "appalling" by the UN human rights office; the shooting death of a Palestinian man by an Israeli during a settler attack in the village of Tayasir; and a series of attacks on villages involving damage to homes, vehicles, and agricultural fields set on fire.
EU Member States and Settlement Products
Several EU countries have advocated for banning products originating from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, though the EU has yet to reach a consensus on this measure.
Further Israeli Government Statements
Foreign Minister Sa'ar reiterated Israel's rejection of the sanctions, stating:
"Israel firmly rejects the decision to impose sanctions on Israeli citizens and organisations."
"The European Union has chosen, in an arbitrary and political manner, to impose sanctions on Israeli citizens and entities because of their political views and without any basis."
"Equally outrageous is the unacceptable comparison the European Union has chosen to make between Israeli citizens and Hamas terrorists. This is a completely distorted moral equivalence."
