Foreign Ministry: EU Decision to Impose Sanctions on Colonial Entities an Important Step Toward Strengthening Accountability

Geneva: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates welcomed the European Union's unanimous decision on Monday to adopt a new package of sanctions against several extremist Israeli colonial organizations and figures involved in supporting illegal colonization in the occupied West Bank, and escalating colonists' terror attacks against the Palestinian people. According to Palestine News and Information Agency, in a statement issued on Tuesday, the Ministry described the decision as an important step toward strengthening accountability mechanisms in confronting the colonial system and elements of colonial terrorism that perpetrate daily crimes, looting, and theft against Palestinian citizens, their property, land, and holy sites. The Ministry also welcomed European positions reaffirming the illegality of Israeli colonization in the occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and considered the sanctions imposed on colonial organizations and figures leading, inciting, and financing colonial te rrorism a step in the right direction. However, it stressed that the measures remain insufficient unless followed by practical and deterrent actions aimed at halting colonial expansion and holding those responsible accountable. The Ministry called for the full suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, the activation of the principle of universal jurisdiction, a boycott of colonial products, and the imposition of measures to hold the occupying state, as well as all those involved in terrorism and those providing support and protection to this system, accountable. It also urged European Union member states to build on this step by imposing a comprehensive ban on dealings with the colonial system in all its forms, preventing colonial products from entering European markets, and ending any direct or indirect support or cooperation with institutions and companies linked to colonization, in line with the European Union's legal and moral obligations. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates stress ed that providing international protection for the Palestinian people, ending the Israeli occupation, and embodying the independent State of Palestine on the June 4, 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, remain the only path toward achieving security, stability, and a just and lasting peace in the region.