EU's Borrell to call for sanctions on Israel's Ben-Gvir and Smotrich

Consensus is unlikely but a new round of punitive measures against violent West Bank settlers remains a possibility

Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has been widely criticised in Europe for his hardline stance on Gaza and Palestine. Reuters

The EU's security and foreign policy chief Josep Borrell is expected to call for sanctions to be imposed on two far-right Israeli ministers accused of encouraging violence against Palestinians and endangering efforts to de-escalate the war in Gaza.

A sanctions proposal, thought to concern Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, was sent to member states “a few days ago” and will be raised at a foreign affairs meeting in Brussels, an EU official told The National.

This would be a symbolically significant step but is not expected to win the support of all 27 EU member states that is required for the bloc to issue such measures.

But it may be possible that EU countries opposed to singling out the two Israeli ministers may also be open to issuing another round of sanctions against violent settlers, sources said.

Settlers targeted so far are figures relatively unknown to the public who are accused of killing or harassing Palestinian civilians on land that is occupied by Israelis but is supposed to be part of a future Palestinian state.

Mr Borrell has not explicitly named the ministers he had in mind but has been critical of Mr Smotrich and Mr Ben-Gvir.

Mr Smotrich recently made incendiary comments appearing to call for the starvation of Gazans and Mr Ben-Gvir defied a ban on Jewish prayer at Al Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem.

On August 11 Mr Borrell asked the Israeli government to distance itself from the ministers' comments.

The following week, he confirmed his intention to “table a proposal for EU sanctions against violent settlers’ enablers, including some Israeli government’s members”.

Hugh Lovatt, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank, said Mr Borrell was attempting to pursue a “more principled EU foreign policy”.

“The idea that the EU should challenge settlement activity is not an innovation,” he told The National.

“What one can argue is radical is that Borrell is trying to implement EU policy, which hasn't happened to date. There is clearly a lot of frustration with the EU's inability to be more impactful in the Israel-Palestine conflict in Gaza.”

The actions of Mr Ben-Gvir and Mr Smotrich have caused deep divisions even within the Israeli political and security establishment, said Toby Greene, visiting fellow at the London School of Economics Middle East Centre.

“The head of Israel’s Shin Ben internal security agency, Ronen Bar, wrote to Israeli ministers last week warning in the strongest terms that Ben-Gvir’s actions, in particular, including his support for extremist settlers, is doing great damage to Israel,” Mr Greene said.

More sanctions on settlers?

The EU is historically divided over the Israel-Palestine conflict and has let the US and Arab states take a lead in the diplomatic response to the Gaza war.

Following a US move, the bloc in April imposed sanctions on four extremist Israeli settlers and two groups for human rights abuse against Palestinians. It issued a new round of sanctions in July under the global human rights policy.

“There are EU leaders, such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban, who have good relations with [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and poor relations with the EU institutions and the European common foreign policy agenda,” Mr Greene told The National.

Close Israeli allies in the EU, including Germany, Hungary and the Czech Republic, are widely expected to reject imposing sanctions on Israeli ministers, arguing it would be unhelpful to EU diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7 killed about 1,200 people. Israel's retaliatory war on the enclave has left more than 40,500 dead.

Pursuing settlers is viewed as a largely symbolic move. “There's a danger to not see the wood for the trees,” Mr Lovatt told The National. “Israeli settlement policy is state funded, so trying to distinguish between good and bad settlers risks focusing on individuals rather than the system.”

Activists have been demanding that western countries target large Israeli organisations that fund settlement activities such as Amana.

Canada in June added Amana to its list of sanctioned groups for “their violent and destabilising actions against Palestinian civilians and their property in the West Bank”.

In the unlikely event that the EU issues sanctions against Israeli ministers, it would make no difference to the Gaza war but may signal that international pressure is increasing on Israel, said Mr Greene.

“Smotrich and Ben-Gvir are not directly involved in decision making with respect to the war and have little to do with the EU or its member states,” he said.

“The central decision maker in Israel is Netanyahu, whose policies appears to be heavily influenced by his domestic political survival and who will not be moved by such a step.”

Those opposed to sanctioning Israeli ministers, reportedly including US President Joe Biden, argue that they should not be targeted because they are members of a democratically elected cabinet.

This argument has also been used to oppose the International Criminal Court's request for arrest mandates for Mr Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as for three Hamas leaders.

“It's a very disingenuous argument,” said Mr Lovatt. “A country should be judged on the nature of its actions, full stop.”