EU announces sanctions against violent Israeli settlers

Bloc breaks its lengthy deadlock on the issue but falls short of imposing full-scale trade sanctions

Too little too late – Peter

The EU has agreed sanctions on violent Israeli settlers, ending a years-long deadlock over the issue but still taking only a “baby step” according to one MEP.

Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said on Monday: “Violence and extremism carry consequences.”

But there was still no consensus among the 27 member states on more hard-hitting trade sanctions.

France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said the EU was “sanctioning the main Israeli organisations guilty of supporting the extremist and violent colonisation of the West Bank, as well as their leaders”.

“These most serious and intolerable acts must cease without delay,” he wrote on social media.