France has banned Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich from entering the country, becoming the latest Western nation to take direct action against senior members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition as pressure grows over Israeli settlement policy and violence in the occupied West Bank.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced the move on Tuesday, accusing Smotrich of promoting policies that undermine prospects for a two-state solution. Barrot said the minister "actively promotes the annexation of the West Bank, which he openly claims, the creation of new settlements in the West Bank, the re-colonisation of Gaza, the economic collapse of the Palestinian Authority and its harmful consequences for the Palestinian population.
"This is a policy that the overwhelming majority of the international community, firmly committed to the two-state solution, cannot accept", Barrot wrote on X.
Barrot also said the ban extends to "four leaders of settler organizations, and twenty-one violent settlers".
Israel swiftly condemned the decision. Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein described the sanctions as "disgraceful", saying they represented an attempt to impose a political position on Israel.
