Israel minister: Appropriate response to EU sanctions is expanding settlements

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said yesterday that expanding illegal settlement activity is the appropriate response to the sanctions imposed by the EU on settlers in the occupied West Bank, local media reported.

Israel’s Haaretz newspaper quoted Smotrich as saying: “The false BDS campaign against the State of Israel is working. A campaign designed entirely to besmirch the State of Israel. If there is violence, it is dealt with by the judicial system.”

“There is one appropriate Zionist answer to this statement by the European Union – strengthening and establishing settlements in all parts of the Land of Israel,” he added.

Smotrich’s statements are the first from a senior Israeli official on the EU decision.

Yesterday, the EU agreed in principle to impose individual sanctions on Israeli settlers who participated in acts of violence against Palestinians.

The High Representative of the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said in statements following the meeting of EU foreign ministers that the 27 member states had reached an agreement on imposing sanctions.

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Borrell explained that the system includes banning entry into EU territories and freezing or confiscating assets located within the EU. The list of those who would face sanctions now needed to be rubber-stamped, he explained.

Since the start of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip on 7 October 2023, settlers have escalated their attacks in the occupied West Bank.

According to data from the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC), settlers carried out 2,410 attacks against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank during 2023, as a result of which 22 Palestinians were killed, ten after 7 October, and 25 Bedouin communities were displaced, including 22 after 7 October.

More than 720,000 settlers are estimated to live illegally in the occupied West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.