Senior European Union officials are drawing up possible options to bar trade coming from illegal Israeli settlements, to present to the union’s foreign ministers for debate.
Preparatory discussions between diplomats from the bloc’s 27 governments have marked a fresh momentum emerging for some type of joint EU action to cut off or drastically reduce imports coming from settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.
A meeting of EU foreign ministers on Monday is expected to return to the question of whether to sanction Israel, a point of particularly fierce internal division over the last two years.
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign affairs envoy who chairs the meetings, plans to gauge the level of support among foreign ministers for action against illegal settlements.
READ MORE
It is understood that a series of options is being drawn up, which include a possible total ban on trade between EU states and Israeli settlements in the West Bank and other occupied territories.
A second option would mean high European Union tariffs placed on imports to make trade prohibitive, or import quotas, that would have the same effect.
“There seems to be a whiff of a changing momentum, but I’m not sure,” said a diplomat from one EU state. Cutting off trade coming from Israeli settlements at EU-level would send a stronger “political signal” than governments enacting individual trade bans, said the diplomat.
Three diplomatic sources said it was unclear whether there would be a sufficient majority behind any proposal to bar or curb trade from settlements. Italy is seen as a crucial swing vote.
The options being considered are centred on trade measures because EU-level changes in that area only require the backing of a qualified majority of member states and not unanimous agreement.
The expanding number of Israel-approved settlements in Palestinian territory, in breach of international law, has put pressure on European governments to take action against Israel.
In particular, there is serious concern about Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s controversial “E1” plan that would cut off northern and southern parts of the West Bank under control of the Palestinian Authority from each other, further undermining prospects for a two-state solution.
The Irish Government has committed to passing a national law, the Occupied Territories Bill, that would prohibit trade with Israeli settlements.
Spain, Slovenia, Belgium and the Netherlands, which all support sanctions at the EU-level, have also been pushing ahead with national import bans on goods coming from the settlements.
The EU came close to taking action against Israel last year. However, reluctance from governments in Berlin and Rome killed a push to suspend an EU-Israel free trade deal.
A ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas militants, brokered soon afterwards by Washington, corresponded with talk about possible sanctions slipping off the Brussels agenda.
A coalition of states that includes Germany, Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Austria traditionally forms a blocking minority that has headed off previous efforts to penalise Israel during its two-year bombardment of Gaza.
Separately, Hungary’s former far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán had used veto powers to stop the EU from placing economic sanctions on individual extremist Israeli settlers. The other 26 member states had been in favour of sanctioning a number of violent Israeli settlers.
Péter Magyar, who was sworn in as the new Hungarian prime minister on Saturday, has signalled he will not be as deferential to Israel’s position.
While Orbán’s obstruction is no longer a factor in the debate, the position of the Czech Republic’s prime minister, Andrej Babis, whose hard-right government took office late last year, will be closely watched on Monday, given Prague’s ardently pro-Israel stance.
The Babis government could become a fresh block on settler sanctions, which need unanimous agreement to be approved.
