France is working with Britain and Belgium to ban violent Israeli settlers, but an Israeli attack on Rafah may be needed before EU-level action.
France on Tuesday (February 13) imposed entry bans on 28 Israeli settlers, saying the Foreign Ministry had “committed crimes of violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.”
The government did not name them, but warned of a sharp increase in aggression in the West Bank since the beginning of the Gaza war, and said the settlers had expressed concerns about the “creation of a viable Palestinian state” after the war ended. It’s incompatible,” he said.
Belgium has also imposed travel bans on extremist Israeli settlers, the Secretary of State for Asylum and Immigration confirmed to EUobserver in January.
Belgium did not reveal their names or the number of bans.
France’s announcement comes as Israel prepares to attack Rafah in southern Gaza, which houses 1.4 million Palestinian refugees and where Israeli airstrikes have killed dozens since last weekend.
The European Union and the United States urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to use strong language to push for tough action.
Britain joined France in putting pressure on Israel on Tuesday by imposing visa bans and asset freezes on four Israeli settlers.
The British named them Moshe Shavit, Ynon Levi, Zvi Bar Yosef, and Eli Federman. For example, Bar Yosef was found guilty of “twice threatening a young man at gunpoint.” [Palestinian] Families having a picnic,” the British Foreign Office said.
And even the United States, Israel’s staunchest ally, publicly blacklisted four Israeli settlers on February 1 in a broader effort to quell Prime Minister Netanyahu’s bellicosity.
France, Belgium and the Netherlands are calling for an EU-level ban on the 12 extremist settlers, citing gross human rights violations.
Meanwhile, Ireland, Portugal and Spain are among the member states most critical of Netanyahu’s actions in the Gaza war, in which Israel has killed around 28,500 Palestinians, mostly children and women.
Diplomatic sources say Israel’s EU critics have backed a European-wide move to impose national bans on the French and Belgian models.
But Israel’s former EU allies, the Czech Republic and Hungary, have refused for the time being to even discuss the matter in the EU Council. That means it is unlikely to be implemented the next time EU foreign ministers meet to take major decisions – in Brussels on February 19th.
The Czechs have suggested that the EU could change its mind if it made clear when drawing up the blacklist that Israeli settlers were not morally equivalent to Hamas.
The Gaza war began on October 7 last year after Hamas, the Palestinian organization that controls Gaza, killed about 1,200 Israelis and took about 200 hostages.
One EU diplomat said Budapest’s isolation would make it easier for other EU countries to override Hungary’s veto.
The Czech Republic and Hungary would also come under further pressure to withdraw in the event of a devastating Israeli attack on Rafah, the EU official added.
If there was such an escalation, the EU would “certainly” blacklist settlers, the diplomat said.
The EU is developing a long-term pace plan with Arab countries, including Egypt and Jordan, based on a two-state solution.
But there are fears that Netanyahu will seize control of Gaza after expelling large numbers of Palestinians.
The Israeli settler population in the West Bank jumped from 502,991 in 2022 to 517,407 in 2023, according to a report based on Israeli government statistics released on Sunday.
The West Bank’s settler population has increased by 15% in the past five years and will exceed 600,000 by 2030, the report said.
An additional 200,000 settlers also live in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem.