Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday night condemned as “unacceptable” the European Union’s decision to sanction several Israeli citizens and organizations operating in Judea and Samaria over alleged “violence” against Palestinians.
“As Israel and the United States are ‘doing Europe’s dirty work’ by fighting for civilization against Jihadist lunatics in Iran and elsewhere,” the Prime Minister’s Office stated, “the European Union has exposed its moral bankruptcy by drawing a false symmetry between Israeli citizens and Hamas terrorists.”
According to Netanyahu, “European politicians are coerced by their radical constituencies.”
He added, “Sanctioning Jews for living in Judea and Samaria is unacceptable. Judea is where Jews come from and Israel will always protect the rights of Jews to live in the heart of our ancestral homeland.”
In conclusion, he said, “The European Union’s attempts to sanction Israeli civilians is a further sign of weakness and will not succeed.”
The E.U. decision against Israel, approved unanimously by the bloc’s 27 foreign ministers earlier on Monday but not yet formally enacted, also sanctions “the main leaders of Hamas,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot wrote on X following the meeting in Brussels.
Maxime Prévot, Belgium’s foreign minister, said the decision passed “after months of deadlock, thanks to the change of government in Budapest.”
“These sanctions send a clear message: extremism and violence carry consequences,” he tweeted. “The illegal settlements and the rise in settler violence against Palestinians are unacceptable and undermine any prospect of a two-state solution.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry noted in a post on X that “to this very moment the European Union has still not officially and transparently published the list of Israeli individuals and organizations it decided to sanction.”
“Information circulating through diplomatic channels indicates that the sanctions list (the contents of which have also not been disclosed) includes individuals and organizations that have no connection whatsoever to violence or criminal activity,” the MFA tweeted.
Unnamed European officials told the BBC that seven Israeli civilians and organizations would be targeted as part of the move.
Sanctions will reportedly be leveled against the Regavim Movement and its director-general, Meir Deutsch; Hashomer Yosh and its former leader, Avichai Suissa; the Nachala Movement and its head, Daniella Weiss; and the Amana development group. It was not immediately clear which Hamas leaders would be sanctioned by Brussels.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a resident of Samaria who helped found the Regavim Movement in 2006 before entering politics, said in a post on Monday night, “European hypocrisy is reaching new heights. No one will force the State of Israel into a policy of national suicide. The attempt to turn the national conflict against Palestinian terrorism into a criminal matter will fail.”
Referencing areas of Judea and Samaria currently under Palestinian Authority jurisdiction under the Oslo Accords Israel signed with the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1990s, the Religious Zionism Party leader added, “I have placed on the Prime Minister’s desk a plan to transfer strategic areas in Judea and Samaria from Areas A and B to Area C.”
He also urged Netanyahu to “convene the Cabinet this evening” and approve his proposal as a response to the sanctions.
“Judea and Samaria are Israel’s security belt, and the time has come to make it clear to the world that anyone who tries to weaken our hold on them will achieve the opposite result. We will continue to strengthen the communities, deepen our hold on the Land of Israel and fight terrorism without fear,” concluded Smotrich.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a resident of the Jewish community in the Judea city of Hebron, said that “expecting the antisemitic Union to make a moral decision is like expecting the sun to rise in the west.”
“While our enemies carry out attacks and murder Jews, the European Union is trying to tie the hands of those defending themselves,” the Otzma Yehudit Party wrote on X.
Ben-Gvir called on Justice Minister Yariv Levin to advance legislation aimed at preventing local Israeli banks “from enforcing these disgraceful sanctions against this wonderful public” in Judea and Samaria.
“I also call on the foreign minister to make it clear, in sharp and unequivocal terms, that Israel will not tolerate the political persecution of its citizens, and to work toward overturning these shameful decrees,” he tweeted. “The settlement enterprise will not be deterred. We will continue to build, plant, defend, and settle throughout the Land of Israel.”
Last year, a report published by the Regavim Movement found that most of incidents of “violence” attributed to Judea and Samaria Jews in recent years by the United Nations were fabricated.
An analysis of 6,285 incidents documented by the U.N. showed that some 90% of the alleged acts in Judea and Samaria did not take place in the disputed territory but in eastern Jerusalem, or were entirely peaceful, such as visits by Israeli Jews to the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, as well as legal activities, such as civilian hikes or infrastructure work.
Filtered for verified incidents of physical violence by Israeli Jews against Palestinians, the list shrinks to just 833 cases over a period of seven and a half years, averaging fewer than 10 incidents per month, according to Regavim.
In addition, the Regavim report found that many of these confirmed cases were also misclassified or involved anti-Israel provocations orchestrated by Palestinian and foreign left-wing activist groups.
Meanwhile, Palestinian terrorists targeted Israeli Jews in Judea and Samaria at least 5,051 times in 2025, according to figures published by the Rescuers Without Borders (Hatzalah Judea and Samaria) NGO.
Twenty-four Israelis were murdered in Judea and Samaria in 2025, and more than 400 others were wounded, the NGO said in its annual report.
The findings, which were cross-checked against official data from the Jewish state’s security agencies, included 3,299 instances of rock-throwing, 458 attacks with Molotov cocktails, 655 attempts to blind drivers with laser pointers, 286 explosive charges and 19 terrorist shooting assaults.
