EU to impose sanctions on illegal Israeli settlers in occupied West Bank

The European Union (EU) has agreed to impose sanctions on illegal Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

This comes after Hungary’s new government lifted the country’s veto, which Viktor Orban, the former Prime Minister, had imposed.

According to the Peace Now settlement watchdog, the organisations the EU will sanction are: Amana, HaShomer Yosh, Regavim, and Nachala. Alongside these organisations, the EU is also sanctioning three settlers who lead these groups – Avichai Suissa, Meir Deutsch, and Daniela Weiss.

Weiss is already sanctioned by the UK and is known as the “godmother” of the settler movement.

The US sanctioned Suissa in 2024; however, Donald Trump removed them from the sanctions list.

All four organisations, and their respective leaders, are collectively responsible for the dispossession, expulsion and murder of Palestinians. Additionally, the organisations work to promote ‘settlements’ in both the West Bank and in Gaza, organising groups and openly boasting about the establishment of new illegal outposts.

West Bank settlers

As expected, Gideon Saar, Israel’s Foreign Minister, slammed the decision.

He would, though, given that he previously lived in both ‘Mitzpe Ramon’ and ‘Sde Boker’, both of which are illegal Israeli settlements in the Negev desert in Occupied Palestine.

Similarly, Ben-Gvir, a seasoned war criminal, claimed the EU was “antisemitic”. Again, he himself is an illegal settler-terrorist. He lives in the occupied West Bank and is known for his extremist views and actions. He has numerous criminal convictions, including eight for offences related to racism, and has promoted racist ideologies against Arabs. Ben Gvir is also arming settlers and calling for the execution of Palestinian prisoners.

In Israel, the rot starts at the top.

An illegal terrorist state

Since Israel launched its genocide on Gaza, illegal settlers have murdered more than 1,000 people in the West Bank.

However, occupation and stealing Palestinian land are a core part of Israeli government policy.

In December 2022, in a post on X, Benjamin Netanyahu stated:

These are the basic lines of the national government under my leadership:
The Jewish people has an exclusive and indisputable right to all spaces of the Land of Israel. The government will promote and develop settlement in all parts of the Land of Israel—in the Galilee, in the Negev, in the Golan, in Judea and Samaria.

There are currently more than 737,000 illegal Israeli settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They have the full backing of the state – both ideologically and materially. They are armed by the government and protected by the IOF and the Israeli police.

As the Canary previously reported:

These settlers only aim is to force Palestinians off their land, so their colonial settlements can be built there instead, and they do this by storming villages and terrorising residents, burning homes, killing livestock, and destroying crops and trees.

Currently, Israel is perpetrating its biggest expansion of Jewish settlements in decades across the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Settlements are illegal under international law.

Article 49 of the Geneva Convention states:

The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.

Additionally, the Hague Regulations (1907) prohibit the seizure and destruction of private property. This means that both the building and the expansion of settlements breach international humanitarian law.

Increasing violence

From settlers expelling an entire Palestinian village, to murdering a farmer, harassing Palestinian shepherds, and stopping children from playing football, there is a clear conscious effort among Israeli settlers to cause physical, emotional, and mental suffering to Palestinians.

The systematic attempts to expel Palestinians from their native land are colonialism with a ‘do not touch, antisemitic’ label plastered to them.

Even the former head of Mossad has compared settler violence to the Holocaust, and who are we to argue with such a man?

Featured image via Al Jazeera English/YouTube