The European Union approved on Monday sanctions against Israeli settler organizations and their leaders, as well as against Hamas leaders.

The decision, made during a meeting of the 27 EU foreign ministers in Brussels, is only a political moved at this point, and there is still technical and legal work that must be done before the sanctions are officially imposed by the EU executive.

“It was high time we move from deadlock to delivery,” said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. “Extremisms [sic] and violence carry consequences.”

“It’s done. The European Union is sanctioning today the main Israeli organizations guilty of supporting the extremist and violent colonization of the West Bank, as well as their leaders,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot wrote on X.

“These most serious and intolerable acts must cease without delay,” he said. “It is sanctioning the main leaders of Hamas, responsible for the worst antisemitic massacre in our history since the Shoah, during which 51 French people lost their lives, a terrorist movement that must imperatively be disarmed and excluded from any participation in the future of Palestine,” Barrot added, using the Hebrew term to describe the Holocaust.

The move, which comes in response to rising violence by extremist Israelis in the West Bank and the expansion of Israeli communities in the disputed territory, had been stalled by former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban.

But the ouster of Orban, a staunch ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, by rival Peter Magyar appeared to have paved the way for the veto to be lifted.

Monday’s move “validates the notion that Orban was blocking them single-handedly,” said Martin Konečný, head of the Brussels-based European Middle East Project.

An EU official told The Times of Israel that a total of seven settlers and settler organizations will be blacklisted. The individuals will have assets frozen and be banned from entering the EU, among other measures.

According to the Peace Now NGO, sanctions will be leveled against Regavim and its head Meir Deutsch; HaShomer Judea and Samaria and its former chief Avichai Suissa; Nachala and its head,........

© The Times of Israel