A “dangerous” proposal? While the possibility of a truce is still being negotiated, without any major progress, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, will ask EU member states to impose sanctions on Israeli ministers, guilty, according to him, of spreading “hatred” against the Palestinians.
The latter specified that he had “launched the process to ask the member states, if they wish,” to impose sanctions on ministers, whom he did not name, who had launched “unacceptable messages of hate against the Palestinians,” adding, in front of the press shortly before the start of an informal meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers, that “the European Union must have no taboos and use its tools to ensure respect for human rights.”
Unlikely to succeed
While he does not mention names, Josep Borrell’s proposal would target Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who belong to the extreme right, according to diplomats. This suggestion, however, has little chance of succeeding given the strong divisions between the 27 since the attack by Palestinian Hamas against Israel on October 7.
Several countries, including Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic, defend Israel’s right to defend itself and block the adoption of strong measures against the Israeli authorities. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto thus described this proposal as “dangerous”. The head of German diplomacy, Annalena Baerbock, also expressed reluctance to the idea of sanctions, recalling the unanimity necessary to make a decision.
The European sanctions provide for a ban on the targeted individuals from travelling to EU territory and a seizure of the assets they hold in the EU, while Europe already imposed, in July, a series of sanctions on Israeli settlers and militant groups responsible, in its eyes, for “serious and systematic” violations of the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
This article is originally published on leparisien.fr
