The EU’s fragmented focus rewards colonial violence

EU Targets Ben-Gvir While Shielding the System

The European Union’s reported move to sanction Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir captures only a sliver of the machinery sustaining colonial control over Palestinian land and lives. Ben-Gvir, with his open calls for expanded settlement outposts and his history of inflammatory rhetoric against Palestinians, serves as a convenient individual target. Yet the structure enabling daily dispossession, from Hebron to the Jordan Valley, remains untouched by such measures. A letter delivered to the European Council in recent weeks urged broader accountability, yet early indications suggest the response will again fixate on personalities rather than policies.

Ben-Gvir rose through the Otzma Yehudit party, built on Kahanist ideology that the EU itself designated as terrorist-linked in earlier years. His appointment followed the 2022 Israeli elections, after which settlement construction surged. Official Israeli data recorded more than 12,000 new housing units approved in the West Bank in 2023 alone. Palestinian communities documented over 1,200 settler attacks in the same period, according to UN monitoring. These figures reveal patterns, not isolated excesses.

The Letter’s Core Demand for Structural Accountability

The letter to the European Council, signed by multiple human rights networks and Palestinian civil society groups, explicitly stated that sanctions limited to Ben-Gvir would reward the colonial framework. It cited Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which conditions cooperation on respect for human rights. Signatories argued that continued arms exports, trade preferences, and diplomatic cover for settlement goods directly contradict that clause. One passage read: “Focusing on a single minister distracts from the state institutions that plan, fund, and protect the expansion of settlements declared illegal under international law.”

European diplomats have acknowledged receipt but offered no timeline for comprehensive review. Past sanctions against individual settlers, such as those imposed in 2024 on four West Bank residents for documented violence, produced symbolic headlines without altering financing flows from Israeli banks to settlement infrastructure. The EU imported €1.2 billion in goods from settlement areas between 2020 and 2023, per its own trade statistics, despite repeated parliamentary resolutions calling for differentiation.

Historical Continuity of Fragmented International Responses

Since 1967, more than 700,000 Israeli settlers have moved into occupied Palestinian territory. Each wave of international criticism has coincided with accelerated construction. After the 2016 UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which declared settlements illegal, annual settlement starts increased rather than declined. EU foreign policy statements routinely reaffirm support for a two-state solution while maintaining full economic ties that subsidize the very infrastructure rendering such a state geographically impossible.

Palestinian human rights defender Sahar Francis of Addameer noted in an interview last month that “targeted sanctions on ministers create the illusion of action while the occupation’s legal architecture, including military orders that seize land under ‘security’ pretexts, continues without interruption.” Her organization has tracked more than 3,000 administrative detention orders issued against Palestinians in 2024, many tied to protests against settlement expansion.

Expert Analysis on Colonial Structures and EU Leverage

International law scholars point out that the Hague Regulations and Fourth Geneva Convention prohibit an occupying power from transferring its civilian population into occupied territory. The International Court of Justice’s 2004 advisory opinion on the separation wall reinforced this prohibition. Yet EU member states continue to certify settlement products under technical arrangements that obscure origin, allowing them to reach European markets. This practice generates revenue that funds further expansion, estimated by Israeli NGOs at hundreds of millions of euros annually.

Political economist Shir Hever has documented how EU research grants and security cooperation programs indirectly support technologies deployed in the West Bank. His analysis shows that fragmenting accountability to single figures like Ben-Gvir preserves these revenue streams while projecting concern. The result is a feedback loop: public statements condemn “extremists,” yet structural incentives remain intact.

Human Cost on the Ground in Ramallah and Beyond

In Ramallah’s surrounding villages, families describe the cumulative effect. In one case, the al-Haj family lost 40 percent of its agricultural land to a settlement access road approved in 2021. Children now walk an additional two kilometers to school because checkpoints prioritize settler movement. Such micro-restrictions multiply across hundreds of communities, producing a geography of control documented in annual reports by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

Medical organizations report rising trauma cases linked to settler incursions. The Palestinian Ministry of Health recorded a 34 percent increase in psychological support requests in Area C villages between 2022 and 2024. These outcomes stem not from any single minister’s statements but from the permit regime, military zoning, and resource allocation that EU trade policies help sustain.

Implications for International Law and Future Accountability

By narrowing focus to Ben-Gvir, the EU risks entrenching a precedent where state policy evades scrutiny. Other ministers and the defense establishment continue to authorize demolitions—more than 1,000 Palestinian structures razed in 2024—without facing equivalent pressure. This selective lens also weakens the EU’s credibility when addressing parallel situations elsewhere, exposing a selective application of principles.

Palestinian civil society continues to advocate for full activation of the EU’s existing legal tools, including suspension clauses and mandatory labeling enforcement. Without movement on these fronts, sanctions against individuals function more as narrative management than genuine restraint on colonial violence.

This is Fatima Al-Rashid for Global1 News, reporting from Ramallah. 🇵🇸