Unmasking Bias: Israeli Official Condemns EU Sanctions as Veil...

Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister has accused the European Union of using anti-Zionism as a guise for targeting the Jewish state. This accusation follows the EU’s decision to impose sanctions on Israeli civil society groups that oppose the creation of a Palestinian state.

“We are observing a disturbing trend where traditional antisemitism has morphed into a more socially acceptable form: anti-Zionism,” stated Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel in an interview with News Media. “While in the past, prejudice was aimed at individual Jews, it now targets our collective Jewish state and our inherent right to exist in our ancestral homeland. Let there be no misunderstanding, political assaults on Israel invariably transform into attacks on Jewish life itself,” Haskel emphasized.

The European Union’s sanctions target four Israeli civil society organizations and three of their senior members, accusing them of supporting “settler violence” and hindering the possibility of a Palestinian state. Regavim, one of the sanctioned groups, criticized this move as a violation of Israel’s sovereignty.

These actions focus on EU-backed structures in Area C of the West Bank, also referred to as Judea and Samaria.

“Our activities are entirely about legal and parliamentary engagement. We gather and scrutinize information and policies, proceeding to challenge them in court and before the legislature to pinpoint areas where Israel’s policy may be flawed or lacking,” explained Naomi Kahn, Director of the International Division at Regavim, in a statement to News Media.

“The European Union is trying to control the internal political system and policies of an independent state that is supposed to be an ally. When we point out the absurdity of the situation, they don’t like it,” she said.

In its announcement, the European External Action Service (EEAS) stated that “extremist settlers and the organizations supporting them contribute directly to violence, forced displacement and dispossession across the West Bank.”

The sanctions, according to the EEAS, “target entities and individuals that facilitate, finance or support activities contributing to settler violence and serious human rights abuses against Palestinians.”

The statement also accused Regavim of lobbying for “the demolition of Palestinian property” and referenced an EU-funded school in Jabbet al-Dhib near Bethlehem.

Kahn said the school was constructed illegally on Israeli state land in Area C, within a nature reserve connected to the Herodian complex. She said legal proceedings were carried out regarding the structure and that it was ultimately demolished.

Under the 1993 Oslo Accords, negotiated during the Clinton administration, the West Bank was divided into three areas: Area A, under full Palestinian control; Area B, under Palestinian civil authority with Israeli security control; and Area C, under full Israeli administrative and security control.

Kahn added that an engineering assessment found the school unsafe for use, arguing that placing students and teachers inside it posed “downright dangerous” conditions.

“We pointed out that the E.U. and the Palestinian Authority are simply violating the law in a very purposeful, systematic way to take control of Area C using structures like schools, sometimes mosques, and homes of innocent people that they push into those areas,” she added.

Regavim has published a report claiming there are 100 illegal schools in Area C that it says are being used by the P.A. as part of a broader strategy of de facto annexation.

Separately, a 2023 mapping study by Regavim estimated that roughly 103,000 unauthorized Arab-built structures exist across the West Bank, asserting that the P.A.—often with external support — has facilitated extensive illegal construction activity.

In response, Israel’s cabinet last month approved a set of broad measures aimed at countering efforts by the P.A. to establish de facto control over disputed territories.

Under the resolution, initiatives attributed to Ramallah to create a parallel land registry in Area C were declared to have no legal validity or standing.

“The real target here is not violence, but legitimate political opposition. The sanctioned organizations do not support violent action; rather, they have consistently challenged the concept of a two-state solution and exposed how the EU actively builds illegal structures in Judea and Samaria,” Haskel said, referring to the biblical names of the territories,” Haskel said.

She accused the EU of disregarding the Oslo Accords and “attempting to unilaterally alter facts on the ground to steal Israeli land.”

Haskel acknowledged there was an issue, as in any society, “with some individuals who break the law, but emphasized they represent a small minority and that Israel investigates and prosecutes them. She said grouping hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Israeli residents in the West Bank together with Hamas — a genocidal terror organization responsible for mass murder — distorts moral distinctions.”

She said, “This creates a false and dangerous symmetry that minimizes the exceptional threat of global terrorism while politically targeting individual Israelis. It is an unacceptable moral equivalence that blurs the line between a sovereign democracy defending its people and the savage terror apparatus trying to destroy it.”

News Media repeatedly sought comment from the European External Action Service, which referred us to its original sanctions statement.