The Foreign Ministers of the Twenty-Seven will analyze next week the adoption of sanctions against the terrorist group Hamas, as Israel has insistently demanded since the attack on October 7, which cost the lives of 1,200 people, but also, in parallel, the implementation of restrictive measures against Israeli settlers responsible for acts of violence in the West Bank. This is stated in an internal note prepared by the EU External Action Service (EEAS) to which La Vanguardia has had access and which has been distributed to European capitals ahead of the meeting that will take place. next Monday in Brussels.
The document reviews possible initiatives that the EU can launch for the stabilization of Gaza as part of the occupied Palestinian territories, the revitalization of the Palestinian Authority and the relaunch of the peace process with a view to facilitating the two-state solution, which Washington has also put it back on the table and that the Arab states claim as the indispensable horizon for any peace initiative that is launched.
Hamas is one of the 23 groups currently recognized as terrorists by the EU, which created its own blacklist of entities in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, with financial consequences for its members. Both the United States and Japan expanded their sanctions against people linked to Hamas as well as against its financial operators after the October 7 attack against Israel but to date, despite pressure from the authorities of the Jewish State, the EU has not moved file.
Germany, France and Italy have advocated, united, to act in this sense and the internal debate has advanced. For the first time, the document that the high representative of EU Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, has sent to the ministers to prepare for Monday’s discussion opens the door to the adoption of sanctions “against Hamas and other terrorist groups” and raises the possibility of creating a specific regime dedicated to the first, to attack its financing and its narrative of the conflict.
In view of the serious deterioration of the situation in the West Bank – “it is a pressure cooker”, Borrell said a few days ago in an interview with this newspaper – the EU External Action Service proposes to “explore” possible measures in response to the settler violence in the region, for example through the banning of visas for “extremists” responsible for attacks on Palestinian civilians or the application of the EU’s general sanctions regime for human rights violations. The worsening climate of tension in the West Bank – in the form of sometimes fatal attacks, disappearances and acts of intimidation – has led the German Government this week to ask that the EU consider adopting sanctions against the settlers responsible for attacks, as requested from Belgium several weeks ago, just as the United States already does.
The adoption of any restrictive measure of this type requires a unanimous decision of the Twenty-Seven, which explains why, given the different positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to date the Union has not been able to take any decision in this regard, Hence the importance of Berlin’s condemnation of violence against the Palestinians of the West Bank. The European foreign ministers will also analyze various initiatives to strengthen the role of United Nations agencies and the International Criminal Court in the region, as well as to reinforce the discredited Palestinian Authority and, in the short term, stabilize the arrival of humanitarian aid to Gaza. .
Borrell today supported the call of the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, who for the first time since the beginning of his mandate in 2017 has invoked Article 99 of the United Nations Charter, which exceptionally involves “drawing the attention of the Security Council”, to call for a ceasefire to avoid a “human catastrophe” in Gaza “given the magnitude of loss of human life in such a short period of time.” “The UN Security Council must act immediately to prevent a collapse of the humanitarian situation in Gaza,” said the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Policy in view of the reports received from the UN humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, who warned this week. “Every time it seems that The situation cannot get more apocalyptic in Gaza, it does. People have been ordered to move again,” when “there is no safe place in Gaza, no hospitals, no shelters, no refugee camps” and “no one is safe, not the children, not the health workers, not the aid workers.” Griffiths tweeted, calling for an end to hostilities and “such blatant disregard for the most basic humanity.”
