As European Union leaders and foreign ministers prepare for meetings to discuss the situation in Israel and Palestine, some of their representatives in Brussels, and Israel’s new ambassador to the EU, have been pushing for the European Commission to amend or withdraw its proposals to sanction “extremist” Israeli ministers and suspend the EU-Israel trade deal. Caving to that pressure would be yet another blow to the EU’s credibility and to hopes for human rights and justice.
Several EU governments have taken unilateral action in response to Israel’s escalating atrocities. While these measures fell short of fulfilling states’ obligations under the United Nations Genocide Convention, they helped generate pressure to reach a ceasefire. Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich risk spoiling those efforts, having already threatened to quit the government in opposition to the ceasefire deal.
Both have called for ethnic cleansing, starvation, and other egregious abuses against the Palestinians, and their statements are evidence of genocidal intent in Gaza. In June, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Norway sanctioned the two ministers. Some EU governments declared them personae non gratae, yet the EU as a whole has failed to act, unable to reach the unanimity necessary to sanction them.
EU states have also yet to approve suspending the trade pillar of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, despite finding Israel in breach of article 2 of the deal, which identifies “respect for human rights and democratic principles” as an essential element. The fragile ceasefire in Gaza is no reason to drop consideration of the measure. The EU’s own review, focused on the entirety of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, references damning UN reports and a landmark July 2024 ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which found Israel’s occupation to be unlawful and marred by serious abuses, including apartheid. Ceasefire or not, those egregious abuses persist and are incompatible with the agreement’s human rights clause.
Targeted sanctions and the deal’s suspension are also included in the annex to the September 2025 New York Declaration on the implementation of a “two-state solution,” spearheaded by France and Saudi Arabia. While most EU states backed the UN resolution endorsing the declaration and several recognized a Palestinian state, few have acted on those commitments. Notably, the EU continues to trade with Israeli settlements, despite referring to them as illegal and “an obstacle to a two-state solution” and in breach of clear obligations laid out by the ICJ.
Rather than easing pressure now, the EU should act on its own findings, uphold international law, and end the impunity that fuels Israel’s past and ongoing crimes.
