Recent provocations from government hardliners Ben Gvir and Smotrich have sparked international outcry.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00The EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has proposed sanctioning Israeli ministers
00:06responsible for inciting hatred and war crimes against Palestinians.
00:12The proposed sanctions are understood to target National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gavir
00:18and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
00:21Both ministers belong to the far-right, ultra-nationalist wing of Netanyahu's government, and their
00:26recent inflammatory actions have sparked international outcry.
00:31I initiated the procedures in order to ask the member states if they want, if they consider
00:38appropriate, including in our list of sanctions, some Israeli ministers have been launching
00:47hatred messages, unacceptable hatred messages against the Palestinians and proposing things
00:55that goes clearly against international law and is an incitation to commit war crimes.
01:04Minister Ben-Gavir recently visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a contested holy site in Jerusalem,
01:11and has repeatedly called for prayer at the site, in violation of the decades-old status
01:16quo maintained by the Israeli authorities.
01:19Minister Smotrich was recently condemned for saying it might be moral to starve two million
01:24Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
01:27He has also been criticized for promoting illegal settlement projects in the occupied
01:31West Bank.
01:32It's unlikely Borrell's call for sanctions will receive the necessary backing from all
01:37EU capitals.
01:39We will be supporting Yossi Borrell's recommendation for sanctions in respect of settler organizations
01:49in the West Bank who are fomenting and who are facilitating expansion of settlements
01:53and also of two Israeli ministers that the High Representative has also called for sanctions
01:59against Ben-Gavir and Minister Smotrich.
02:02It is not with the recognition of the theoretical Palestine, with the sanctions against the
02:09Israeli ministers, that the problem is solved.
02:13The European Union has been grappling with deep divisions on its stance on the war in
02:17Gaza, which have often prevented it from adopting swift decisions.
02:23Yossi Borrell's proposal does signal increasing frustration in Brussels with Netanyahu's most
02:28hardline government allies.