EU to sanction Israeli settlers, following Biden’s lead

EU Foreign Policy chief equates Hamas terror group and Jewish settlers accused of “harassing” Palestinians.

By World Israel News Staff

The European Union is gearing up to implement sanctions against settlers in Judea and Samaria whom it claims have “harassed” Palestinians, days after the Biden administration levied penalties against three Jewish residents of the region.

At a press conference in Brussels on Monday morning, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he was confident that the EU would move forward with the sanctions.

The 27 member states of the EU had reportedly not come to a consensus regarding the sanctions, with Hungary specifically said to be obstructing the measure, and Germany and Austria refusing to support it unless the same sanctions were applied to Hamas.

But Borrell’s announcement indicated that those concerns had been addressed.

“It seems that today all will agree on putting sanctions on both Hamas and the violent settlers who are harassing Palestinians” in Judea and Samaria, Borrell said.

Notably, in his statement, Borrell equated the Hamas terror group, which launched an unprecedented incursion into Israel that involved the rape of numerous women and slaughter of babies, children, and the elderly with alleged acts by settlers such as vandalism and using threatening language.

Borrell, a harsh critic of Israel, has made numerous harsh claims about the IDF campaign in Gaza, recently comparing it to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“Starvation is being used [by Israel] as a war [tactic] and when we condemn this happening in Ukraine, we have to use the same words for what is happening in Gaza,” Borrell told the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in New York last week, without providing evidence to support that assertion.