The extremist Jewish settlers who illegally occupy land in the West Bank and do not shy away from violently expelling or even murdering Palestinians must expect entry bans into the West in the future. The EU and the German federal government want to enforce corresponding orders.
After many addresses of solidarity for Israel, the German government and the EU bureaucracy in Brussels are now focusing on another aspect of the war in Gaza – the parallel escalating conflict between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank. The violence there has “recently reached such frightening levels that many families have left their homes out of fear and there have been several deaths,” a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry recently said. Israel is called upon to “protect Palestinians from the activities of extremist settlers and hold those responsible accountable.” Berlin now wants to act itself, together with the other EU states and following the example of the US. After European Union foreign ministers ended their last meeting this year, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell appeared before the press and said the bloc was preparing possible sanctions against violent settlers. He will submit a proposal to the member states that is modeled on similar measures taken by the US.
The US administration had already imposed entry bans on violent Israeli settlers who threatened “peace, security or stability in the West Bank” at the beginning of December. A spokesman for the US State Department said it involved “dozens” of people. Those affected and their relatives should no longer be able to enter the United States unless they are American citizens. Visas that have already been issued are to be withdrawn and participation in the visa-free entry program ESTA, which Israelis and German citizens have recently been able to use, is to be blocked.
The spokesman for German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock praised the move and said it was “important to advance this debate at the European level.” The United Nations has counted a total of 314 attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank on Palestinian targets since the terrorist attack by the Palestinian Hamas militia from the Gaza Strip on October 7. This means that the number of attacks has more than doubled compared to the previous period. According to the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health, 240 Palestinians died and four Israelis are said to have been killed, three of them members of the security forces. The Palestinian side accuses the settlers of wanting to use the war in Gaza to use their attacks in the West Bank to drive out Palestinians and expand their settlements.
Later this month, the Israeli government approved the construction of 1,700 additional housing units in East Jerusalem. Nevertheless, the government in Jerusalem speaks out clearly against the riots. “The Israeli government condemns the violence,” said government spokesman Eylon Levy. Jerusalem has “zero tolerance for citizens who think of taking the law into their own hands or participating in the formation of militias or acts of vandalism.” However, the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with his coalition partners Bezalel Smotrych and Itamar Ben Gvir, includes two ministers who are themselves associated with the settler movement and also live in settlements. Even before October 7th, they were accused of encouraging the settlers’ riots.
In the past, Ben Gvir had called for Arab citizens of Israel to be deported if they were not loyal to the Jewish state. Smotrych called in February for a Palestinian village to be “wiped out” after it was attacked by hundreds of settlers in a reprisal that left dozens injured and one dead. Since October 7, Smotrych and Ben Gvir have been at least partially sidelined.
The two settler ministers are not members of the expanded security cabinet that Netanyahu formed after the Hamas attack with the participation of opposition leader Benny Gantz. It seems as if an invisible dividing line has formed in the Israeli government between the more moderate forces around Netanyahu and Gantz and the settler faction. This development may also be due to international pressure and does not necessarily mean that Netanyahu has permanently broken with the settler movement. However, the government reacted cautiously to approvingly to the Western sanctions. “Unfortunately, there is violence by extremists that we must condemn,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in response to the American entry bans. “In a constitutional state, and Israel is a constitutional state, the right to use force lies with those who are authorized to do so by the government.” Ultimately, both sides pursue a policy of balance when it comes to the West Bank. With the sanctions, the West – especially states that are particularly close to Israel, such as the US and Germany – are showing that, despite their understanding of the war to destroy the terrorist militia Hamas, they are not blind to the violence of Israeli settlers.
Israelis, Americans and Europeans alike know that there is also potential for conflict in the West Bank, which could dramatically worsen the current security situation and even lead to an expansion of the conflict in the region. In the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority nominally rules under the secular and moderate Palestinian organization Fatah compared to Hamas. But their authority has suffered considerably in recent years, on the one hand due to allegations of corruption and on the other hand due to the partial cooperation with Israel in the wake of the Oslo peace agreements, which also provided for the establishment of the Palestinian Authority. Israel also collects taxes for the authority, but sometimes blocks the transfer of funds by saying that some of them are paid out as pensions to the relatives of killed Palestinian attackers. In any case, the authority is also severely weakened financially. All of this has led to Hamas gaining influence in the West Bank and fighting groups forming that operate independently of all major Palestinian organizations. In addition, disorganized individual perpetrators repeatedly operate from the West Bank. It cannot therefore be ruled out that an escalation of violence in the area will get out of control. This could be even more dangerous than in Gaza.
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