EU targets MK’s ex-aide, anti-Arab group headed by extremist designated by US in second round of settler sanctions

The European Union announces its second round of settler sanctions, targeting two far-right organizations and two extremist Israeli activists involved in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Among the entities designated is the Lehava anti-miscegenation group, whose leader Benzi Gopstein was targeted in a separate round of settler sanctions announced by the US today.

Far-right Israeli activists Meir Ettinger, Elisha Yered, Neria Ben Pazi and Yinon Levy have also been designated by the EU.

Ettinger is the grandson of the late, extremist rabbi Meir Kahane, and a well-known hilltop youth activist who has long faced allegations of participation in violent attacks against Palestinians. Hilltop youth are known for establishing illegal outposts throughout the West Bank and sometimes clashing with IDF soldiers, Palestinians and the left-wing Israeli activists trying to protect them.

Yered previously served as a spokesperson to far-right MK Limor Son Har-Melech from Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party.

Levy and Ben Pazi were designated in one of the previous rounds of settler sanctions imposed by the US.

The EU, US and individual European countries have begun imposing sanctions on Israeli extremists this year amid growing frustration over Israel’s failure to clamp down on settler violence.