Europe's top diplomat will call for sanctions against two far-right Israeli ministers as the EU struggles to restore trust in the Middle East.
Foreign Minister Josep Borrell is due to speak at a meeting of EU-27 foreign ministers on Thursday about the need for sanctions against two far-right government ministers, Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotric, who have drawn international condemnation for their inflammatory comments and actions.
Israel's Minister of National Security, Ben Gvir, recently came under fire for visiting Al-Aqsa Mosque, also known as the Temple Mount, a site sacred to Muslims and Jews. The ultra-nationalist minister, seeking to sabotage ceasefire talks, said he went there to pray, in violation of the status quo, which allows only Muslims to worship there and not others to visit.
Ben Gvir has also repeatedly called for an end to aid and fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip, a position he reiterated earlier this month.
Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich also sparked outrage earlier this month when he said it might be “just and moral” to starve two million people in the Gaza Strip to free the remaining Israeli hostages taken in the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Perhaps responding to these comments, Borrell tweeted on August 11: “While the world calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, Minister Ben Gvir calls for fuel cuts and aid for civilians. Like Minister Smotrich's hateful comments, this is an incitement to war crimes. Sanctions must be on the EU agenda.”
Days later, following further Israeli settler attacks on villages in the West Bank, he said he “confirms our intention to table proposed EU sanctions against those who support violent settlers, including some members of the Israeli government.”
Borrell, who has repeatedly called on Israel to halt escalating settler attacks, is expected to push for sanctions when foreign ministers meet in Brussels on Thursday. No formal proposal has been put forward and EU officials expect Hungary and the Czech Republic, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's staunchest allies, to reject the plan.
Still, EU sources believe the proposal is worth pursuing both for its own sake and as an attempt to restore the EU's international credibility, which was damaged by the Israel-Gaza war.
“The aim is to strongly condemn (the Israeli ministers' actions) and show that the EU is trying to be credible and that we don't have double standards,” the source said.
While the bloc has shown considerable unity (except for Hungary) on the Ukraine war, views on the Israel-Gaza conflict are often sharply divided.
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EU member states voted for, against or abstained on a UN Security Council resolution in October last year calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and on a resolution in December calling for the delivery of large-scale aid to the strip.
The no vote and abstentions in New York not only highlighted divisions in the EU, but also placed EU countries in a different camp to many in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and South America, fueling accusations of double standards compared to the EU's strong condemnation of Russia's war in Ukraine.
Borrell is said to be concerned about how the EU is perceived around the world.
The EU is often divided over the Middle East situation, but it has imposed sanctions on extremist Israeli settlers and organisations involved in human rights abuses and violence against Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
