Sa’ar rejects EU move to sanction Israelis, condemns Hamas comparison

The report said the sanctions would apply to several Israeli organizations and their leaders accused by European officials of supporting extremist activity.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Monday condemned a reported European Union decision to impose sanctions on Israeli citizens and organizations in Judea and Samaria, calling the move “arbitrary,” “political,” and morally distorted.

“Israel strongly rejects the decision to impose sanctions against Israeli citizens and organizations,” Sa’ar said in a statement posted on X.

“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.”

According to a Reuters report citing four diplomats, European Union foreign ministers reached an agreement on new sanctions targeting what the bloc described as violent Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria.

The report said the sanctions would apply to several Israeli organizations and their leaders accused by European officials of supporting extremist activity.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot was quoted by Reuters saying that the EU also planned sanctions against senior Hamas leaders, whom he described as “responsible for the worst anti-Semitic massacre in our history since the Holocaust,” adding that Hamas “must be disarmed and excluded from any participation in the future of Palestine.”

Sa’ar sharply criticized what he said was an implied comparison between Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria and Hamas terrorists.

“No less outrageous is the intolerable parallel that the European Union has chosen to draw between Israeli citizens and Hamas terrorists,” Sa’ar said. “This is a completely morally distorted comparison.”

The foreign minister defended Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria as historically and legally justified.

“Israel has stood, stands and will stand for the right of Jews to settle in the heart of our homeland,” Sa’ar said.

“No people in the world has such a long-standing and documented right to its land as the people of Israel have to the Land of Israel.”

He added that Jewish historical claims to the land were recognized under international law.

“The attempt to dictate political views through sanctions is unacceptable and will not succeed,” he said.