This Friday, the European Union approved its first sanctions against Israeli extremist settlers for attacking Palestinians in the West Bank. These restrictive measures have been in preparation for months, but were delayed due to the reluctance of countries such as Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, which are the strongest defenders of Israel in the EU.
However, the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and the continuous news of violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in Gaza has led to a change in the position of these countries. Viktor Orbán's Hungary was the last country to veto sanctions against Israeli settlers, but in the end it ended up lifting its veto.
In any case, The EU arrives late compared to the United States and the United Kingdom, which already introduced their own restrictive measures weeks ago. Spain has also moved towards its own national sanctions against Israeli settlers in the face of Brussels' inaction.
[Albares anuncia que España sancionará por su cuenta a colonos israelíes si no hay acuerdo en la UE]
Specifically, the EU has included four individuals and two entities on the EU human rights sanctions blacklist. They are accused of “serious human rights abuses against Palestinians, including torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and of violation of the right to property and to private and family life of Palestinians in the West Bank“.
The entities included in the list are Lehavaa radical right-wing Jewish supremacist group, and Hilltop Youth, a radical youth group made up of members known for violent acts against Palestinians and their villages in the West Bank. Also on the list are two prominent Hilltop Youth figures, Meir Ettinger and Elisha Yered. Both were involved in deadly attacks against Palestinians in 2015 and 2023.
They also enter the black list Neria Ben Paziaccused of repeatedly attacking Palestinians in Wadi Seeq and Deir Jarir since 2021, and Yinon Levi, who has participated in multiple violent acts against neighboring villages from her residence in the illegal Mitarim farm outpost.
Sanctioned individuals are subject to the freezing of their assets in the EU and are also prohibited from providing them with funds or economic resources, directly or indirectly. In addition, they are prohibited from traveling to the EU.
At their penultimate meeting in March, European leaders called for an immediate end to violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and for safe access to the Holy Sites to be guaranteed.
The EU has strongly condemned extremist settler violence and called for perpetrators to be held accountable. Brussels has also condemned the Israeli Government's decisions to further expand illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and urges it to reverse these decisions.
