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“Israel has stood, stands, and will continue to stand for the right of Jews to settle in the heart of our homeland,” Sa’ar wrote.
By United with Israel Staff
The European Union approved sanctions Monday against Israeli individuals and organizations in Judea and Samaria, prompting a sharp backlash from Israel, which accused Brussels of targeting Israelis over their political views while drawing a “distorted moral equivalence” between Jews and Hamas terrorists.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas announced that EU foreign ministers had agreed to move forward with sanctions tied to violence against Palestinians.
“EU Foreign Ministers just gave the go-ahead to sanction Israeli settlers over violence against Palestinians,” Kallas wrote on X. “They also agreed new sanctions on leading Hamas figures. It was high time we move from deadlock to delivery. Extremisms and violence carry consequences.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar forcefully condemned the move, saying the sanctions were imposed “in an arbitrary and political manner” against Israeli citizens and organizations “because of their political views and without any basis.”
In a statement posted on X, Sa’ar also blasted what he described as the EU’s attempt to equate Israeli citizens with Hamas terrorists.
“Equally outrageous is the unacceptable comparison the European Union has chosen to make between Israeli citizens and Hamas terrorists,” Sa’ar wrote. “This is a completely distorted moral equivalence.”
Sa’ar defended the Jewish connection to Judea and Samaria, declaring that “Israel has stood, stands, and will continue to stand for the right of Jews to settle in the heart of our homeland.”
“No other people in the world has such a documented and longstanding right to its land as the Jewish people have to the Land of Israel,” he added, calling Jewish settlement a “moral and historical right” recognized under international law.
In a follow-up statement, Sa’ar raised additional concerns over the sanctions process itself, noting that the European Union had not publicly released the full list of individuals and organizations targeted by the measures.
“Information circulating through diplomatic channels indicates that the sanctions list includes individuals and organizations that have no connection whatsoever to violence or criminal activity,” he wrote.
“The European Union’s rhetoric is about sanctions against ‘settler violence.’ The practice, apparently, is sanctions against political views that don’t conform with the EU’s own views.”
In Israel, the move is being viewed as another attempt by European officials to undermine Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, the historic and biblical heartland of the Jewish people, while drawing moral equivalence between Israeli civilians and Hamas terrorists.
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