The high representative for Foreign Policy of the EU, Josep Borrell, has ordered his technical services to begin drawing up a list of Israeli settlers guilty of violent activities “and attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank” to apply sanctions to them as soon as possible. There is no formal proposal at the moment, and there is no unanimity among the member states, but the Spaniard hopes to be able to “put it on the table.” What there is a green light for is to implement punishments against the Hamas leadership, to try to financially suffocate the terrorist organization.
That is the balance of the meeting of the 27 foreign ministers that was held this Monday in Brussels, the last of the year if there are no surprises. Borrell raises the tone with each passing day. His analysis is harsh, much more so than most Western leaders. Today he has denounced, once again, the situation of civilians in Gaza, which in his opinion “is catastrophic and I would say apocalyptic.” The Israeli response, he laments, “is leaving an incredible number of civilian deaths. I believe that human suffering constitutes an unprecedented challenge for the international community”, since 85% of the population, 1.9 million people, are internally displaced and at the level of infrastructure “it is equal to or greater destruction than the German cities in the Second World War”.
On the agenda this Monday were various types of sanctions. On the one hand, a proposal from France, Germany and Italy to tighten the pressure on Hamas and its leadership. The organization has been on the EU terrorist list since 2003, and is therefore subject to sanctions. But most governments believe that they can be tightened, revised, to avoid bypasses. “Hamas has long been considered a terrorist organization and on October 7 they did many merits for it to be considered as such. There has been no opposition to the proposal from Italy, France and Germany and it will be presented to the Council for approval,” the Spaniard summarized at the end of the session.
But in addition, there are countries that have “pointed out the importance of acting against violence in the West Bank” by the settlers, since “the Israeli authorities themselves have admitted that they use terror against civilians”Borrell said. “We are alarmed by the violence in the West Bank by violent settlers. And we are alarmed by the fact that the Israeli Government has approved the construction of another 1,700 homes in Jerusalem. This to expand settlements, which are illegal under international law. We condemn this decision and we will prepare a statement about it,” he added.
The high representative does not have the necessary consensus right now, since European sanctions work unanimously, like important foreign policy issues. “I will make a proposal to sanction extremist settlers in the West Bank following in the footsteps of the US and using the Human Rights framework and I will present it to the Member States. “My role is to make proposals to the Council, but foreign policy belongs to the States and I need unanimity from all, which sometimes makes my role difficult.”