Two Israeli ministers lashed out at EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Thursday over his calls for sanctions against Israeli ministers.
Borrel said on Thursday that he would ask the bloc’s foreign ministers to consider imposing sanctions against Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who have made “unacceptable hate speech against Palestinians.”
Before attending an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, Borrel told reporters that he had initiated the procedure to ask member states if they would consider “putting on our sanctions list some Israeli ministers” who “propose things that are clearly contrary to international law” and are an invitation to “commit war crimes.” Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said on X:
“Joseph Borrell, who transfers money to the Palestinian Authority – an organization that pays murderers of Jews and encourages terrorism – wants to impose sanctions on Israeli ministers who are working to fight terrorism. Hypocrisy!”
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz also fired back at Europe’s top diplomat. Katz said on X:
“Outgoing EU foreign minister Josep Borrell claims that the Israeli Foreign Minister is calling for the displacement of Palestinians from the West Bank. This is a blatant lie, just like his previous falsehood regarding my statements about Gaza, from which he was forced to retract. I oppose the displacement of any population from their homes.”
Ireland will back sanctions
Ireland will support a recommendation from the EU’s Foreign Affairs Commissioner to impose further EU sanctions on Israel, Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said.
Martin later said that given the recent UN International Court of Justice ruling that settlements in the West Bank violate international law, Israeli companies would also no longer receive Irish defence and military contracts.
Today’s sanctions reference will seek to further restrict illegal settlements and, according to Martin, will include individual sanctions against Israeli cabinet ministers who support them.
Speaking ahead of the meeting in Brussels today, Martin said Ireland will support the sanctions when they are formally presented at the next ministerial meeting in September. He also added that the decision comes as the conflict in Gaza has escalated into a “war against the people” of the region.
The Tánaiste said:
The war has levelled Gaza [and] all aspects of civilian infrastructure from schools to hospitals to waste management treatment facilities with dire consequences for the population. It’s a war on the population, there’s no point in trying to fudge this. It’s very, very clear. The displacement – on numerous occasions – of the two million inhabitants of Gaza really is inhumane and cannot be condoned at this stage.
On Wednesday, Katz called for Gaza-style measures in the northern West Bank, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinians, amid a massive military operation in the area, the largest in two decades.
Israel has continued a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since the Hamas attack on October 7 last year, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. The offensive has killed more than 40,600 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 93,800, according to local health authorities.
The ongoing blockade of Gaza has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins.
