Brussels – The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, revealed on Thursday that he had initiated measures to impose sanctions on Israeli ministers for “issuing hate speech against the Palestinians and proposals that contravene international law and constitute incitement to commit war crimes.”
This came in statements he made to reporters before an informal meeting of the 27 European Union foreign ministers in Brussels.
“A process has been initiated to ask member states whether they want to include on our sanctions list some Israeli ministers who have made unacceptable hate speech against the Palestinians and proposals that clearly contravene international law and constitute incitement to commit war crimes,” Borrell said.
Borrell’s move comes within the framework of rejecting Israeli violations, especially in its war on the Gaza Strip and finally with the widespread escalation in the West Bank.
But a formal decision to impose sanctions on Israeli ministers would require unanimous support from EU member states, and Borrell made it clear that no decision would be made today due to the informal nature of the meeting.
While Borrell did not name the ministers involved, he repeatedly expressed his protest over the statements and actions of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, in addition to criticizing recent statements by Foreign Minister Israel Katz.
“The large-scale Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank should not be a prelude to an extension of the war from Gaza, including total destruction,” Borrell said in a post on Twitter.
He stressed in his post that “the comparison drawn by Minister Katz, especially regarding the evacuation of Palestinian residents, threatens to fuel further instability.”
Borrell reiterated his position in his statements on Thursday, stressing that Katz’s statements regarding the forced displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank are “totally unacceptable.”
“Every day is more terrifying than the day before. Ceasefire talks move from one day to the next without results, while the bombing continues and the number of civilian casualties increases,” he said.
For months, Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been leading indirect negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian factions movement, but they have not resulted in the crystallization of an agreement because Israel rejected the factions movement’s demand to end the war, withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip and return the displaced Palestinians to the north of the Strip.
Borrell quoted Katz as saying: “As happened in Gaza, there must be a forced mass displacement of the population of the West Bank,” describing his statement as “almost the same thing they did to the people in Gaza.”
He also expressed his hope that the foreign ministers of the European Union countries would raise their voices loudly against the situation in Gaza and the West Bank.
On Wednesday morning, the Israeli army launched a military operation in the northern West Bank, the largest since 2002, which resulted in the killing of 17 Palestinians and the wounding of dozens of others.
In conjunction with its war on Gaza since October 7, the Israeli army has escalated its attacks in the West Bank, including Jerusalem, killing more than 665 Palestinians, including 150 children, injuring more than 5,400, and arresting more than 10,000, according to official Palestinian data.
With American support, Israel waged a war on Gaza, leaving more than 134,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, amid massive destruction and deadly famine.
Anatolia
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2024-08-29 20:34:12
