France leads push for new sanctions on Israeli settlers as EU consensus falters

Several EU countries are working to coordinate national sanctions on Israeli settlers in Judea and Samaria, who are allegedly linked to violence against Palestinians, three European diplomats said on Saturday.

According to the diplomats, the national coordination efforts led by France to sanction Jews in Judea and Samaria are a consequence of the inability to advance harsher measures against Israel at the EU level due to a lack of unanimity on the issue. The diplomats said that due to those hurdles, several countries had concluded that coordinated national sanctions were the best option for now.

“There is no unanimity at the EU level, so we have moved to discussions at the national level,” the diplomats said, adding that the announcement would be made in the coming days.

According to another diplomat, Britain and Norway are among the countries with which France is coordinating the new national sanctions.

“In the face of settlement expansion and violence in the West Bank, we have already taken measures. More could follow,” a French source said, while refusing to elaborate on the nature of the measures, which are thought to include asset freezes and travel bans.

The effort comes less than a month after the foreign ministers of the European Union agreed to impose new sanctions on Israeli settlers in Judea and Samaria. The EU also sanctioned a number of Hamas terrorists, a move that Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said created a false moral equivalence between the two.

In response, Sa’ar sharply criticized the decision in a statement posted on 𝕏, arguing that the sanctions were politically motivated and unfairly targeted Israeli citizens:

“Israel firmly rejects the decision to impose sanctions on Israeli citizens and organizations. 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."

He also condemned what he described as an inappropriate comparison between Israeli settlers and Hamas members.

“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. Israel has stood, stands, and will continue to stand for the right of Jews to settle in the heart of our homeland. No other people in the world has such a documented and longstanding right to its land as the Jewish people have to the Land of Israel. This is a moral and historical right that has also been recognized by the law of nations, and no actor can take it away from the Jewish people. The attempt to impose political views through sanctions is unacceptable and will not succeed.”

In the past, Hungary, under Prime Minister Viktor Orban, regularly blocked sanctions against Israel in the EU. Once Orban lost the Hungarian elections, which took place in April, the EU jumped at the opportunity to impose the sanctions.

France’s initiative to coordinate further national sanctions against Israel comes just days before the country hosts a June 12 meeting between roughly a dozen foreign ministers and what has been described as Israeli and Palestinian civil society groups.

“It will bring together representatives of Israeli and Palestinian civil society to reaffirm our collective commitment to implementing the two-state solution,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in a video message on Thursday.

“Our ambition is clear. We want to generate a new call to action to advance the recognition and effective implementation of a Palestinian state,” he added.