{"id":459679,"date":"2026-07-13T11:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T09:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/07\/13\/israele-lue-divisa-e-dubbiosa-cerca-lo-stop-commerciale-alle-colonie-in-cisgiordania\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T12:45:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T10:45:37","slug":"israel-a-divided-hesitant-eu-moves-to-halt-trade-with-west-bank-settlements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/07\/13\/israel-a-divided-hesitant-eu-moves-to-halt-trade-with-west-bank-settlements\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel: a divided, hesitant EU moves to halt trade with West Bank settlements"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Sanctions against Israel<\/strong>: the day of reckoning has arrived for the EU. But when it comes to the nature of that reckoning, the European Union of Member States continues to hesitate and act in a disorganised manner. The foreign ministers of the 27 member states are meeting in Brussels<\/a> to discuss, among other things, the Middle East crisis and the response to Israel\u2019s actions towards the Palestinian population. The European Commission is bringing to the table \u201c<\/strong>the document on the options\u201d to be considered<\/strong>, as announced by the EU\u2019s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas<\/strong>, who, however, remains non-committal on the outcome of the discussion: \u201cLet\u2019s see how the discussion unfolds.<\/span><\/span> Whether Member States are genuinely prepared to adopt one of these measures, and whether the Commission will need to provide more concrete guidance.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The most likely scenario is a trade ban on products from Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories, an option that appears to be gaining widespread support. “Appears” is the key, as Belgium has already made it clear that the EU Commission\u2019s proposal is unacceptable. \u201cThe European Commission has finally put forward a few options in just two pages, but this is still far from sufficient<\/strong> to be a credible geopolitical player,\u201d criticised the Belgian Foreign Minister, Maxime Prevot<\/strong>, on his arrival at the EU Foreign Affairs Council. For this reason, \u201cwe are calling for concrete proposals on which to base our position, on which Member States will vote, and which can be presented swiftly to the Foreign Affairs Council.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/05\/25\/death-penalty-in-israel-and-the-strait-of-hormuz-crisis-a-faltering-eu-reveals-its-limitations\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Belgium wants trade-related measures whose adoption requires a qualified majority,\u00a0unlike sanctions. This position is shared by the Netherlands: a ban on imports of agricultural and non-agricultural goods produced in the settlements \u201cfrom our point of view, these are trade measures,<\/strong> and therefore require a qualified majority,\u201d states the Dutch Foreign Minister, Tom Berendsen<\/strong>, bluntly. However, Germany\u2019s response was immediate and firm: \u201cThe Commission itself has stated that unanimity is required<\/strong> and we share this position,\u201d declared Berlin\u2019s Foreign Minister, Johann Wadephul<\/strong>.\u00a0Spain, too, joined Belgium and the Netherlands in calling for the approval of at least measures of this nature: \u201cWe must ban trade with Israeli settlements<\/strong>,\u201d said the Spanish Foreign Minister, Jos\u00e9 Manuel Albares<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

However, these are options that do not target Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s government, and in particular the Minister for National Security, Ben Gvir<\/a>, as called for by other member states, including Italy. Luxembourg\u2019s Foreign Minister, Xavier Better<\/strong>, was visibly irritated: \u201cWill we manage to reach an agreement before the summer holidays to put pressure on Israel and the occupied territories?\u201d he asked, in open disagreement with his European partners. \u201cI\u2019m pleased that Kaja Kallas now at least has a few options on the table. I have a feeling that today they\u2019ll find another excuse not to vote<\/strong>.\u201d He then went a step further, pointing out that parliamentary elections are due to take place in Israel on 27 October, followed by the appointment of a new government: \u201cMust we really wait for a change of government before deciding on trade with the illegal settlements in the West Bank? That would be shameful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Italy pushes back<\/h4>\n

Italy tempers the ambitions of Luxembourg and the states seeking swift progress. \u201cWe are examining the proposal, and we\u2019ll see what it looks like,\u201d Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani<\/strong> said vaguely, before ruling out the idea of a qualified\u2011majority vote. The measure targeting settlers and settlements, he argued, \u201cshould be approved unanimously,<\/strong> since this is a political choice, not a commercial one.\u201d In any case, \u201cwe will examine the proposals in detail and assess them.\u201d As for Italy\u2019s position, \u201cwe are not prejudicially opposed, but I don\u2019t know whether a decision can be taken before the elections in Israel<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, and Luxembourg are pushing for a moratorium on settlements, but a consensus has yet to be reached. The Commission faces criticism for taking insufficient measures<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":459646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[26005,33830,27337,25804,33394,25973],"class_list":["post-459679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-antonio-tajani-en-2","tag-kaja-kallas","tag-middle-east-en","tag-sanctionsin","tag-ue","tag-xavier-bettel-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459679"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":459696,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459679\/revisions\/459696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}