France has barred Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, four leaders of settler organizations and 21 violent settlers from entering the country, French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot announced on Tuesday, as several countries introduced fresh sanctions against settlers and organizations deemed to be responsible for violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israel reacted with anger to the move, accusing the countries involved in the new measures of furthering antisemitism through anti-Israel policies.

Barrot, in a statement on X, slammed Smotrich for actively promoting the annexation of the West Bank and the “recolonization” of Gaza. He moreover accused the far-right minister, who also serves as a minister within the Defense Ministry, of pushing for “the economic collapse of the Palestinian Authority, and its deleterious consequences on the Palestinian population.”

“Four leaders of settler organizations, and twenty-one violent settlers” are also banned from French territory, the French diplomat said, warning that Israel’s policies in the West Bank are ones “that the overwhelming majority of the international community, firmly committed to the two-state solution, cannot accept.”

Separately on Tuesday, France, along with Britain, Canada, and Norway, announced coordinated action with sanctions against several settler individuals and entities in response to “record settlement expansion and rising settler violence in the West Bank.”

The sanctions are aimed at disrupting the flows of finance that have “allowed extremist settler groups to act with impunity” in the West Bank, a British government statement said, with coordinated sanctions “against networks financing and enabling settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank.”

The move was also coordinated with New Zealand and Australia,........

© The Times of Israel