EU foreign ministers to meet on measures further limiting trade with settlements

The European Union is working on new measures to block trade with Israeli West Bank settlements, says EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.

“All the 27 member states agree that Israeli settlements are illegal under international law,” says Kallas in remarks to the press after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

She says that the diplomats, at the request of the European Council, examined a range of measures to further limit trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank as well as towns in the Golan Heights.

“These include a full or partial ban on imports of settlement products, stricter export licensing requirements, and the possible use of tariffs,” Kallas says.

“These are not options against Israel,” Kallas continues. “These are options against the illegal settlements that undermined the two-state solution.”

Most of the international community views Israeli settlements as a violation of international law, a determination Israel disputes. Israel annexed the Golan Heights in 1981, which the international community largely does not recognize.

Kallas notes that “taking action against the trade with settlements” — likely referring to a ban — received the most backing among the ministers.

“We tasked the ambassadors to take this work forward — and probably will also have an extraordinary meeting on this,” she says.