EU’s top diplomat seeks sanctions against Israeli ministers

The European Union’s foreign policy chief has urged the bloc’s 27 member states to impose sanctions against some Israeli ministers for their “hate messages” against Palestinians.

Josep Borrell, speaking before the EU’s foreign and defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Thursday, said Israeli ministers had made statements that go “clearly against international law and is an incitation to commit war crimes”.

He did not name the ministers. However, in recent weeks Borrell has publicly criticised far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for statements he described as “sinister”.

“I initiated the procedures in order to ask the member states … if they consider appropriate, including in our list of sanctions some Israeli ministers [who have] been launching unacceptable hate messages against the Palestinians,” Borrell told reporters.

“I think that the European Union has not to have taboos in order to use our toolbox – in order to make humane law respected,” he said.

The Israeli ministers have created international outrage after Smotrich suggested starving Gaza’s population to release the Israeli captives held in the enclave.

Ben-Gvir has made several inflammatory comments about Palestinians. He most recently said he would build a Jewish synagogue at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound – Islam’s third-holiest site and a symbol of Palestinian identity – in occupied East Jerusalem, if he could.

Diplomats said it is unlikely that Borrell’s call for sanctions on the ministers will gain the required unanimous agreement of all 27 members to pass.

They said, however, that it indicates the level of anger that some European officials have about comments by Israeli ministers.

The EU has been divided since the Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on October 7 that triggered Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians.

Hungary, Austria and the Czech Republic staunchly defend Israel’s right to self-defence, blocking any attempt at tough measures targeting the Israeli government.

Ireland – among one of the EU’s most pro-Palestinian members and who joined Spain and Norway in recognising Palestinian statehood in May – said on Thursday that it backed Borrell’s proposal for sanctions against ministers and Israeli groups that are “facilitating” the expansion of settlements on Palestinian territory.

“It cannot be business as usual,” Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin told reporters, citing an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice last month, which called on organisations such as the EU to examine its relationship with Israel in light of the occupation of the West Bank.

Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister Petra De Sutter said this week she would fully back sanctions on Ben-Gvir and Smotrich.

Other ministers have been less than supportive.