EU sanctions extremist settlers and entities undermining the Two-State Solution

Protecting the viability of the Two-State Solution

The EU supports a future in which Israelis and Palestinians live side by side in peace, security and dignity, within recognised borders. The Two-State Solution remains the only viable path towards a just, lasting and sustainable peace.

But that prospect is increasingly under threat.

Illegal settlement expansion, violent outposts and intimidation against Palestinian communities continue to undermine the prospect of a future Palestinian state.

The EU does not only advocate for peace and international law. It acts to defend them.

Why sanctions?

Extremist settlers and the organisations supporting them contribute directly to violence, forced displacement and dispossession across the West Bank.

Today's sanctions target entities and individuals that facilitate, finance or support activities contributing to settler violence and serious human rights abuses against Palestinians, including violations of the rights to property, education, freedom of religion or belief, private and family life, and physical and mental integrity.

Who is targeted?

The sanctions include:

• Nachala Settlement Movement and its Director Daniella Weiss. The movement encourages and facilitates coercive acts leading to the forced displacement of Palestinians. Nachala's outposts obstruct access to Palestinian agricultural and grazing land and have been persistent sources of settler violence. Several of these outposts were built on privately owned Palestinian land. In her capacity as director of the movement, Daniella Weiss plans, directs and publicly supports the acts of Nachala.
• Israeli NGO Regavim and its director Meir Deutsch, for lobbying for the demolition of Palestinian property seeking to expand the control of Israel to the whole West Bank through instituting legal proceedings. The organisation also lobbied for the demolition of an EU-funded Palestinian primary school at the Jabbet al Dhib village, near Bethlehem, in the West Bank.
• Hashomer Yosh NGO and its president Avichai Suissa. The organisation offers material support and coordinates volunteers on herding farms, supporting at least 28 violent outposts and settlements in the West Bank. It also recruits armed volunteers and provides guards involved in violent attacks. Avichai Suissa is responsible for facilitating and encouraging serious human rights abuses in the West Bank, as well as supporting outposts founded by EU-designated individuals.
• Amana cooperative association of the settler movement Gush Emunim for initiating, financing and facilitating at least 30 violent outposts and settlements, including outposts founded by EU-sanctioned individuals. Alongside the settler violence they generate, these outposts have led to widespread displacement of vulnerable Palestinian communities and dispossession of Palestinian property.

What the measures mean

The restrictive measures include an asset freeze on listed persons and entities, as well as a prohibition on making funds or economic resources available to them, directly or indirectly.

Individuals listed are also subject to a travel ban to the European Union.

Holding perpetrators accountable

By adopting these sanctions, the EU demonstrates that extremism, violence and actions undermining peace carry consequences.

Protecting the viability of the Two-State Solution requires concrete action against those who seek to undermine it.