The European Union’s Decision to Impose Sanctions on Israeli Settlement Entities Constitutes an Important Step Toward Strengthening Accountability Mechanisms and Enforcing International Law
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates welcomes the unanimous decision by European Union countries on Monday to adopt a new package of sanctions targeting a number of extremist Israeli settlement organizations and figures involved in supporting illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank, as well as the escalating settler terrorism against our people, viewing it as an important step toward strengthening accountability mechanisms in confronting the colonial settlement system and settler terrorism elements that perpetrate daily crimes, plunder, and theft against Palestinian citizens, their property, land, and holy sites.
The Ministry also welcomes the affirmations in European positions regarding the illegitimacy of Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and considers the imposition of sanctions on settlement organizations and figures that lead, incite, and fund settler terrorism as a step in the right direction, though insufficient unless complemented by practical and deterrent measures to halt colonial settlement expansion and hold those responsible accountable, including the full suspension of the partnership agreement between the European Union and the occupation state, activation of the principle of universal jurisdiction, boycotting settlement goods, and imposing measures to hold the occupation state and all those involved in terrorism, support, and protection of this system accountable.
The Ministry calls on European Union countries to build on this step by imposing a total ban on dealings with the colonial settlement system in all its forms, preventing settlement products from entering European markets, and halting any direct or indirect support or cooperation with institutions and companies linked to settlement, in line with the European Union’s legal and ethical obligations.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates affirms that providing international protection for the Palestinian people, ending the Israeli occupation, and realizing an independent State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital on the June 4, 1967, lines is the only path to achieving security, stability, and just and lasting peace in the region.
: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of Palestine