New EU sanctions against Israeli settlers in West Bank

Brussels – Second round of EU sanctions on Israeli settlers responsible for “gross and systematic” human rights violations against Palestinians in the West Bank: five individuals and three entities, adding to the previous four individuals and two entities targeted last April 19.

The Council of the EU has included them in the EU’s comprehensive human rights sanctions regime, which includes freezing their assets on European soil, banning them from providing funds or economic resources for their benefit and banning them from setting foot on EU soil.

Among the five perpetrators of abuses of “the right of everyone to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental integrity, the property right, the right to private and family life, freedom of religion or belief, and the right to education” are Israeli settler Moshe Sharvit and his “Moshe Farm” in the Jordan Valley, from which Sharvit has been engaging in violence and threats against Palestinian residents of herding communities near his West Bank outpost. Physical and verbal harassment has intensified since October 7, 2023.

There’s then Zvi Bar Yosef and his unauthorized outpost known as “Zvi’s Farm” in the West Bank, from which repeated acts of violence against Palestinians in the villages of Jibya, Kaubar (Kobar) and Umm Safa have come, Baruch Marzel, who openly calls for ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, Ben-Zion “Bentzi” Gopstein, founder and leader of the extremist organization Lehava, and Isaschar Manne, founder of the unauthorized Manne Farm outpost in the southern Hebron Hills.

Today’s designations also include Tzav 9, an Israeli violent activist group founded in January 2024, which regularly blocks humanitarian aid trucks delivering food, water and fuel to Gaza. Tzav 9’s actions include violent protests, attacks on food trucks, and destruction of food.