Ireland’s foreign minister has admitted that there is “no sign” of the EU adopting sanctions against goods from West Bank settlements.
Helen McEntee said Dublin was keen to impose measures on settlers, but could not act unilaterally and independently of the bloc.
She also has her sights set on sanctioning far-right Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, but European outlet Rapporteur reports that a number of EU member states are holding off on any decision until Israel’s October elections.
"What I’ve seen in a very short space of time is that things change, that views within member states change, that actions change, and if there were to be a change in government actions from Israel, then we respond to that - but at the moment there is no sign of any type of change,” said McEntee.
However, she added there was “no way” sanctioning trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank would “drop off the agenda”.
“The way I see it is the situation is continuing to get worse,” she went on, citing recent events in the West Bank.
“I think we just need to continue to work... to try and reach an agreement so that we can stop this from happening.
"Continued settlement expansion is making the prospect of a two-state solution less likely.”
McEntee’s intervention comes after the EU did impose sanctions on several settler groups, which it said were connected with anti-Palestinian violence in the West Bank, in May.
Kaja Kallas, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, said at the time: “EU Foreign Ministers just gave the go-ahead to sanction Israeli settlers over violence against Palestinians.
"They also agreed new sanctions on leading Hamas figures. It was high time we moved on from deadlock to delivery. Extremism and violence carry consequences.”
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