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Agence France-Presse

Most European Union countries on Monday called for the bloc to put forward a proposal on banning the import of products from Israeli settlements, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.
“The option that got the most support was banning the trade with the illegal settlements,” Kallas said after a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers.
“We tasked ambassadors to take this work forward and also ministers agreed that, if necessary, we can also reconvene an extraordinary meeting,” she added.
Several EU countries – including Ireland, the Netherlands, and Spain – have already imposed their own trade restrictions on Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, considered illegal under international law.
Under pressure for the EU as a whole to take measures, the bloc’s executive last week laid out options to curb trade with settlements, including a ban.
“These are not options against Israel. These are options against the illegal settlements that undermine the two-state solution,” Kallas said, after calling the situation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank “intolerable”.

The slow pace of the discussion has angered countries keen to curb trade – with some diplomats accusing the European Commission of dragging its feet.
Belgium’s foreign minister Maxime Prevot said ahead of the meeting that the options laid out appeared to be more “a bone to gnaw on than a genuine desire to move forward”.
“We are calling for concrete proposals,” he said.
Even if the commission does now come up with a proposal, it does not mean that a ban will be adopted.
There is disagreement in Brussels as to whether the move would need backing from all 27 member states or just a weighted majority.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the territory, excluding East Jerusalem, among some three million Palestinians.
UN chief Antonio Guterres has condemned the “relentless” expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, saying in a report seen by Agence France-Presse last month that they are contributing to the territory’s worst displacement crisis since 1967.
The EU has long been hampered by divisions over its approach towards Israel, with some members staunchly backing the country and others supporting the Palestinians.


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EU foreign policy chief insists measures target West Bank settlements rather than Israel itself


EU foreign policy chief insists measures target West Bank settlements rather than Israel itself.


EU countries push for trade ban with Israeli settlements

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}EU foreign policy chief insists measures target West Bank settlements rather than Israel itself

EU foreign policy chief insists measures target West Bank settlements rather than Israel itself