EU urges Israel to halt settlement expansion as settlers attack children | Occupied West Bank News
EU Pressures Israel Over Settlement Expansion and Violence Against Palestinians
The European Union has intensified its calls for Israel to cease the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank, cautioning that ongoing construction and unilateral actions threaten the viability of a future Palestinian state.
An EU spokesperson emphasized the need for Israel to halt the legalization of settlement outposts, land appropriations, demolitions, and forced evictions of Palestinians, asserting that these actions “undermine the viability of the two-state solution.”
This plea follows a recent decision by Israel’s security cabinet to allocate approximately 1.3 billion shekels ($427.8 million) for the establishment of 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank. The funding is viewed as one of the largest recent investments in settlement expansion and has received backlash from Palestinian officials and international observers.
International bodies, including the United Nations and the International Court of Justice, along with most nations, consider Israeli settlements in territories occupied since the 1967 conflict to be illegal under international law, a stance that Israel disputes.
While the EU maintains that it does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the territories occupied in 1967, member states remain divided on imposing stronger measures against Israel’s settlement policy. This week, EU foreign ministers were unable to reach a consensus on proposals aimed at restricting trade with settlements in the occupied West Bank, despite increasing demands for decisive action from several member states.
The renewed diplomatic pressure occurs amid ongoing violence in the occupied West Bank, where clashes have resulted in injuries to Palestinians, including children, from incidents involving Israeli settlers and military forces. On Friday, two Palestinian children were hospitalized after allegedly being struck by stones thrown by settlers in the Wadi al-Sha’er area, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. In a separate incident, a 16-year-old Palestinian boy was shot by Israeli forces and is currently receiving medical treatment.
“Everybody agrees that the situation in the West Bank is really intolerable,” said Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. “What is happening in the West Bank is actually making it more and more impossible for the two-state solution to come into effect.”
