Israeli settler Meir Goldmintz walks past a parked bulldozer inside the Sa-Nur settlement, south of Jenin in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on May 7, 2026. ILIA YEFIMOVICH / AFP
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned the European Union after the EU's foreign ministers, on Monday, May 11, agreed on new sanctions on Israeli settlers over violence against Palestinians, as a change of government in Hungary ended months of blockage.
"As Israel and the US are 'doing Europe's dirty work' by fighting for civilization against jihadist lunatics in Iran and elsewhere, the European Union exposed its moral bankruptcy by drawing a false symmetry between Israeli citizens and Hamas terrorists," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on its official X account.
"It was high time we move from deadlock to delivery," EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas said while announcing the green light. "Extremisms and violence carry consequences." French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the EU was "sanctioning the main Israeli organizations guilty of supporting the extremist and violent colonization of the West Bank, as well as their leaders." "These most serious and intolerable acts must cease without delay," he wrote on social media.
