The European Union imposed sanctions on Thursday against several Judea and Samaria advocacy groups and leaders, labeling them “extremist Israeli settlers and organizations” accused of “serious and systematic human rights abuses” against Palestinians in the territory.

Those sanctioned under the EU’s Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime include the Nachala Settlement Movement and its director, Daniella Weiss; the Regavim NGO and its director, Meir Deutsch; Hashomer Yosh and its president, Avichai Suissa; and Amana, the settlement-building cooperative affiliated with the Gush Emunim movement.

The EU accused the groups of supporting or facilitating violence, forced displacement and dispossession of Palestinians in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), which the bloc refers to as the West Bank. The sanctions include asset freezes and travel bans.

In a statement, Regavim said it was sanctioned for the “crime” of filing a petition with the Israeli courts against “an illegal European Union structure built at the foot of Herodium, on the edge of the Judean Desert Nature Reserve.”

According to the organization, the structure had been used as a school. Regavim said an engineering assessment submitted to the court found the building posed a safety hazard.

The NGO argued that the EU sanctions issued on Thursday are a “direct threat” to the judges who made the ruling, “who may become the next targets of sanctions if they rule in favor of law enforcement in Judea and Samaria.”

The sanctions against ”violent settlers” were approved unanimously earlier this month at a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers but no names of indivudals or organizations were mentioned at the time .The EU also imposed new sanctions on leaders of Hamas.

EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas posted on social media that the ministers agreed extremism and violence should carry consequences. “It was high time we move from deadlock to delivery,” she said.

Israel strongly rejected  the EU decision to impose sanctions against Israeli citizens and organizations.

”The European Union has chosen, arbitrarily and politically, to impose sanctions against Israeli citizens and organizations due to their political positions and without any basis.,” said Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar in a statement.

The minister also  slammed the EU for its ” outrageous intolerable” parallel  drawn between Israeli citizens and Hamas terrorists. ”This is a completely morally distorted comparison,” the minister said.

France and Italy have also called on their EU counterparts to discuss possible sanctions against Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir foir his treatment of the Gaza flotilla activists.

At an informal meeting of the 27 EU Foreign Ministers in Cyprus this week, Kallas noted that these sanctions ” have been on the table already months ago and we have other proposals also on the table.”

She said that the next Foreign Affairs Council in June ”we will discuss that.”However she also mentioned the fact that ”there is a lot of pressure also from the Member States who so far have been objecting to sanctioning ministers.”