{"id":35847,"date":"2024-08-30T12:59:56","date_gmt":"2024-08-30T19:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=35847"},"modified":"2024-08-30T12:59:57","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T19:59:57","slug":"eus-top-diplomat-seeks-sanctions-on-israeli-leaders-for-incitement-to-commit-war-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/08\/30\/eus-top-diplomat-seeks-sanctions-on-israeli-leaders-for-incitement-to-commit-war-crimes\/","title":{"rendered":"EU&#8217;s Top Diplomat Seeks Sanctions on Israeli Leaders for &#8216;Incitement to Commit War Crimes&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/media-library\/josep-borrell-rings-a-small-bell-to-open-an-informal-meeting-of-e-u-foreign-ministers-in-brussels.jpg?id=53570266&amp;width=1200&amp;height=400&amp;quality=90&amp;coordinates=0%2C70%2C0%2C496\" alt=\"Josep Borrell rings a small bell to open an informal meeting of E.U. foreign ministers in Brussels. \"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell rings a small bell to open an informal meeting of foreign ministers from the 27-nation bloc in Brussels on August 29, 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0(Photo: Thierry Monasse\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">While welcoming the move, one Amnesty International campaigner asserted that&nbsp;<strong>&#8220;<\/strong>the E.U.&#8217;s call for a cease-fire and curbing settler violence rings hollow until it takes concrete action.&#8221;<em><\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/brett-wilkins\">BRETT WILKINS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Aug 29, 2024 (CommonDreams.org)<a href=\"https:\/\/giving.commondreams.org\/-\/XKQWGZVR\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said Thursday that he has recommended sanctioning Israeli leaders for hate speech and inciting war crimes in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/gaza\">Gaza<\/a>&nbsp;and the illegally occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Borrell&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.eeas.europa.eu\/eeas\/hrvp-josep-borrell-doorstep-informal-meeting-ministers-foreign-affairs-29082024_en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a>&nbsp;during a meeting of E.U. foreign ministers in Brussels that he has asked member states if they support imposing sanctions on some Israeli Cabinet ministers who have disseminated &#8220;unacceptable hate messages against the Palestinians&#8221; and have proposed &#8220;things that clearly go against international law&#8221; and amount to &#8220;an incitement to war crimes.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Israeli ministers should be sanctioned by EU for inciting hate and war crimes against Palestinians, says <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JosepBorrellF?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@JosepBorrellF<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Gaza?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Gaza<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WestBank?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#WestBank<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Israel?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Israel<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9N0oz0tdCX\">pic.twitter.com\/9N0oz0tdCX<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Georg von Harrach (@georgvh) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/georgvh\/status\/1829085430320406588?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 29, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>At least one E.U. member said it supports Borrell&#8217;s recommendation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;This is a war against Palestinians, not just against Hamas. The level of civilian casualties and dead is unconscionable,&#8221; Irish Foreign Minister Miche\u00e1l Martin&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/liveblog_entry\/irish-fm-dublin-will-back-recommendation-for-sanctions-on-israeli-ministers-settler-groups\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a>&nbsp;Thursday in Brussels. &#8220;It&#8217;s a war on the population. No point in trying to fudge this.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;It cannot be business as usual,&#8221; Martin added. &#8220;It is very clear to us that international humanitarian law has been broken.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier this year, the Irish Senate&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/english.alarabiya.net\/News\/world\/2024\/02\/28\/Ireland-s-Senate-unanimously-calls-for-sanctions-against-Israel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">voted<\/a>&nbsp;to impose sanctions on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/tag\/israel\">Israel<\/a>, prohibit the transfer of U.S. weapons to Israel via Ireland, and push for an international arms embargo against the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While E.U. nations such as Ireland, Spain, Norway, and Slovenia have been outspoken critics of Israel&#8217;s Gaza onslaught and have responded with moves including recognizing Palestinian statehood, other members of the bloc\u2014notably Germany and France\u2014have been&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/germany-israel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">staunch supporters<\/a>&nbsp;of Israel, even as its forces have killed and wounded more than 144,000 Gazans and displaced, starved, or sickened millions more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz has&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/norway-ireland-spain-palestinian-state\">threatened<\/a>&nbsp;&#8220;severe consequences&#8221; for European nations that recognize Palestinian statehood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like the United States\u2014Israel&#8217;s biggest international backer\u2014the E.U. has&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/middle-east\/eu-imposes-sanctions-against-violent-west-bank-settlers-2024-04-19\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">imposed sanctions<\/a>&nbsp;on a handful of far-right Israeli individuals and groups, including extremist settler colonists who incited deadly West Bank&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/israeli-settler-attacks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pogroms<\/a>&nbsp;and an organization whose members have blocked humanitarian aid shipments from entering Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While Borrell did not publicly identify specific Israeli ministers he believes should be sanctioned, he has recently condemned the words and actions of far-right figures including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ben-Gvir was widely condemned for&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/sde-teiman\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">defending<\/a>&nbsp;Israeli soldiers accused of gang-raping a Palestinian man detained at the notorious Sde Teiman prison and for taking part in a highly controversial visit to Islam&#8217;s third-holiest site, the al-Aqsa mosque compound\u2014which is located on what Jews call the Temple Mount, Judaism&#8217;s most sacred site. Ben-Gvir infuriated Muslims and other critics by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2024\/8\/26\/israeli-minister-ben-gvir-says-he-would-build-synagogue-on-al-aqsa-compound\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">declaring<\/a>&nbsp;he wanted to &#8220;put an Israeli flag&#8221; and build a synagogue there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Smotrich, who has also defended the alleged Sde Teiman rapists as &#8220;heroic warriors,&#8221; has drawn condemnation for promoting new and expanded Israeli settler colonies in the West Bank, a policy he attributed partly to increasing international recognition of Palestinian statehood and the International Court of Justice&#8217;s (ICJ) recent ruling&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/international-court-of-justice-israel-occupation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">affirming<\/a>&nbsp;that Israel&#8217;s 57-year occupation is a form of apartheid and illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Statements by Ben-Gvir and Smotrich\u2014who recently&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/israeli-minister-block-aid-let-gazans-die\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">asserted<\/a>&nbsp;that it may be &#8220;justified and moral&#8221; to starve 2 million Palestinians to death\u2014have been entered as evidence in the South African-led ICJ genocide case concerning Israel&#8217;s war on Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Borrell has mentioned some of the ministers&#8217; words and actions in previous calls for accountability for those who incite hate and violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;While the world pushes for a cease-fire in Gaza, Minister Ben-Gvir calls for cutting fuel and aid to civilians,&#8221; he&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JosepBorrellF\/status\/1822734595873542321\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a>&nbsp;on social media earlier this month. &#8220;Like Minister Smotrich&#8217;s sinister statements, this is an incitement to war crimes.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Sanctions must be on our E.U. agenda,&#8221; Borrell added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While human rights defenders welcomed Borrell&#8217;s sanctions recommendations, some groups urged him to go even further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The [ICJ&#8217;s] findings clearly point to violations of international law committed by Israel and to the obligations of third states not to legitimize or provide any assistance to Israel&#8217;s illegal conduct,&#8221; Eve Geddie, director of Amnesty International&#8217;s European Institutions Office,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amnesty.eu\/news\/israel-opt-icj-opinion-means-there-can-be-no-business-as-usual-for-eu-and-israel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a>&nbsp;on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Geddie continued:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>E.U. members states&#8217; supply of arms and equipment as well as their trade and investment with illegal Israeli settlements are enabling Israel&#8217;s violations of international law and are contrary to their obligations under international law. There can be no business as usual with a state maintaining a brutal, unlawful occupation and perpetrating serious violations of international law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, on a mass scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The relentless bombardment of Gaza amid a clear risk of genocide, the deadly spike in state-backed settler violence, and the latest military offensive in the West Bank are all byproducts of Israel&#8217;s unlawful occupation and decades of impunity enabled by E.U. inaction.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The E.U.&#8217;s call for a cease-fire and curbing settler violence rings hollow until it takes concrete actions\u2014an immediate arms embargo, a ban on trade with Israeli settlements, and support for action at the U.N. to bring an end to Israel&#8217;s unlawful occupation of the occupied Palestinian territory,&#8221; Geddie added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/brett-wilkins\">BRETT WILKINS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/author\/brett-wilkins\">Full Bio &gt;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell rings a small bell to open an informal meeting of foreign ministers from the 27-nation bloc in Brussels on August 29, 2024. \u00a0(Photo: Thierry Monasse\/Getty Images) While welcoming the move, one Amnesty International campaigner asserted that&nbsp;&#8220;the E.U.&#8217;s call for a cease-fire and curbing&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/08\/30\/eus-top-diplomat-seeks-sanctions-on-israeli-leaders-for-incitement-to-commit-war-crimes\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35847"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35848,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35847\/revisions\/35848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}