EU Foreign Policy Chief Tables Sanctions on Hardline Israeli Ministers for Hate Crimes

The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has proposed sanctioning Israeli ministers for hate speech and incitement to war crimes, in another bid to toughen the bloc’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza.

“I initiated the procedure to ask member states if they want (to) include in our list of sanctions some Israeli ministers (who) have been launching hate messages, unacceptable hate messages against the Palestinians and proposing things that clearly go against international law, and (are) an incitation to commit war crimes,” Borrell told reporters on Thursday morning.

He spoke ahead of an informal meeting of the bloc’s 27 foreign ministers in Brussels, where a decision on sanctioning Israeli ministers cannot be formally taken and is unlikely to gain unanimous backing.

While Borrell did not name the ministers in question, he has recently expressed outcry over the statements and actions of Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, who both belong to the far-right, ultra-nationalist wing of Netanyahu’s coalition government.

Ben-Gvir sparked international condemnation with a recent visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, going against the status quo maintained by Israeli authorities. He has also proposed building a synagogue on the holy site.

“The EU strongly condemns the provocations by Israeli Min. Ben-Gvir who, during his visit to the Holy Sites, advocated for the violation of the Status Quo,” Borrell said in a statement on X on August 13.

Smotrich has been repeatedly condemned for plans to promote illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, and statements in which he said it might be “moral” to starve two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

“While the world pushes for a ceasefire in Gaza, Min. Ben Gvir calls for cutting fuel & aid to civilians. Like Min. Smotrich’s sinister statements, this is an incitement to war crimes,” Borrell said in another statement on X.

“Sanctions must be on our EU agenda.”

Borrell’s proposed sanctions are also understood to target Israeli ministers who have promoted or enabled violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.

In June, Smotrich dismissed international concern over continuous settlement building in the West Bank as “preaching”, and has since continued to provide government support to settlement projects. He has also been withholding tax revenues earmarked for the Palestinian Authority, the government body which partly administers the occupied West Bank.

The EU sanctioned a handful of individuals and entities responsible for attacks against Palestinian communities in April, but violence in the West Bank has persisted.

Deep rifts between EU capitals persist

Borrell is unlikely to be able to piece together the unanimous support needed to sanction the ministers.

In the past, EU member states considered staunch in their support for Israel – notably Hungary – have limited the foreign policy chief’s ambitions in holding the Israeli government to account in respect of international law.

The Irish and Slovenian foreign ministers have so far backed the proposal, with Spain and Belgium also calling for more stringent sanctions against violent settlers.

“Slovenia (…) calls for thinking of sanctions against leaders in Israel that are violating international law,” Slovenia’s foreign minister Tanja Fajon said following the meeting on Thursday.

“We will be supporting Josep Borrell’s recommendation for sanctions, in respect of settler organisations in the West Bank who are fermenting or facilitating (the) expansion of settlements, and also of two Israeli ministers that the High Representative is also calling for sanctions against,” the Irish foreign minister Micheál Martin told reporters.

But the Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani dismissed the proposal as “unrealistic” and counter-productive.

“It’s not by theoretically recognising Palestine, or by sanctioning Israeli ministers that we solve the problem,” he said.