At a meeting, EU Foreign Ministers decided to sanction ‘violent settlers’

EU Foreign policy chief Josep Borrell makes new anti-Israel statements that drew a rebuke from the Foreign Minister. He accused Israel of ‘provoking famine’

 

Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz will most probably be invited to a EU Foreign Affairs Council,which comprises the 27 EU Forfeign Ministers, to discuss the situation in Gaza.

At a meeting on Monday in Brussels, mainly focused on the war in Gaza and the Middle East, the ministers had what was called an ‘’orientation debate’’ on the EU-Israel Association Agreement. This debate followed a move by Spain and Ireland who have asked the European Commission to undertake a review of whether Israel is complying with its human rights obligation under the EU-Israel Association Council. This review was asked in the framework of the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

The Association Council is the highest forum steering Israel-EU relations and deals with the full range of these ties, including in science, the economy, energy and the environment.

The Council met in 2022 after a hiatus of ten years due to disagreements between the two sides on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

Israel signed an Association Agreement that defined its relationship with the EU in 1995 and ratified it in 2000.

‘’We have to further engage with Israel to further discuss the situation in Gaza. To call for an Association Council was complicated and had not received strong support because first, you have to agree on an agenda and on a common position (on the conflict)from Member States, which was going to be very difficult to get,’’  EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell told a press conference following the Foreign Affairs Council.

Instead, he said, many member states had come out with the idea to invite  Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz to attend the next Foreign Affairs Council ‘’in order to continue reaching out to Israel and to discuss about this issue,’’ Katz was already invited to meet the EU ministers in January.

Borrell said the new Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mohammad Mustafa, should also be invited ‘’to listen from the Palestinian side.’’

At Monday’s meeting,  the Foreign Ministers agreed in principle to impose sanctons on ‘’violent Israeli settlers’’ for attacking Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, the West Bank, following in the footsteps of the United States, Britain and France.

“A solid compromise has been agreed at the working level and I hope that this will be continued until full adoption soon, but the political agreement is there,” Borrell said.

As the unanimity is needed for such a decision, the agreement was reached after Hungary lifted its opposition to such sanctions.

The EU created a sanctions regime specifically to target Hamas following the attack on Israel by the terrorist group on Oct. 7.

It will impose the additional Hamas sanctions before sanctioning the Israeli settlers, diplomats quoted by Reuters said.

That sequencing was important for EU members close to Israel, such as Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, which wanted to make clear they were not equating the two groups, the news agency said.

Earlier in the day, Borrell made new anti-Israel statements that drew a reaction from Israel’s.

Addressing a conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza, he said that that Israel ‘’is provoking famine in Gaza and using starvation as a weapon of war.’’

“In Gaza we are no longer on the brink of famine, we are in a state of famine, affecting thousands of people,” he added.

“Israel allows extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza by land, air, and sea for anyone willing to help. Despite Hamas violently disrupting aid convoys and UNRWA’s collaboration with them, we persist,” Israel Katz posted on X, referring to the  involvement of employees of the UN Agency for Palestinians tot he October 7 massacre.

The foreign policy chief has made a series of anti-Israel statements since the outbreak of the Gaza war, following the Hamas attack in southern Israel, in which 1,200 Israelis were killed, including women and children, and 240 were kidnapped.

”It’s time for Borrell to stop attacking Israel and recognize our right to self-defense against Hamas’s crimes,” Katz wrote.