The head of French diplomacy, Jean-Noël Barrot, announced it last week from Ramallah, in the West Bank, after a meeting with the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. New sanctions could be taken “soon” by the European Union against extremist Israeli settlers carrying out violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs reaffirmed on Monday.
“We have taken sanctions, sanctions at the national level against violent settlers, and sanctions at the European level,” declared Jean-Noël Barrot, stressing that “this sanctions regime had already been activated twice and that it could be activated a third time soon.”
Since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 and the Israeli military operation launched in retaliation in the Gaza Strip, the situation has become even more tense in the West Bank. The UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs recorded more than 300 incidents linked to settlers there, from October 1 to November 4. France has continued to denounce the violence carried out by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.
In February, Paris adopted “sanctions” against 28 “extremist Israeli settlers” guilty, according to Paris, of “violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank”.
“We are very attached to the security of Israel, but without offending the people of Israel, or the Jewish people more generally (…) it is in the interest of Israel, of its security, that international law is respected and justice be done,” declared Jean-Noël Barrot who participated in a panel on the Middle East at the Paris Peace Forum.
From Jerusalem this Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar reaffirmed that reestablishing a Palestinian state is not “today” a “realistic” project, while the two-state solution is the “only” possible, for the Europeans.
