EU foreign policy chief says Israeli settlements should be treated like Russian-occupied Crimea - Middle East Eye

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has said that the EU should treat illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territories in the same way as it treated Russia’s invasion of Crimea. 

Kallas told The Irish Times on Friday that Europe could not be taken seriously as long as it remained divided on a response to the actions taken by the Israeli government and violent settlers, encouraging nations to adopt a “principled stance” by backing an EU-wide ban on Israeli settlement trade, which is illegal under international law.

She added that the volume of trade with the settlements is small, but the move to ban trade carried an important symbolic message nevertheless. 

If the proposal was approved as an EU trade measure rather than a foreign policy decision, it would only require the support of a majority of member states, rather than unanimous agreement for sanctions - which Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovenia currently oppose.

Kallas said that the European Commission is under “very clear” pressure from national governments to table an EU-wide trade ban, and that European institutions “get a lot of bashing” for their failure to sanction Israel amid its ongoing genocide in Gaza.

“The question is what do we do about this? If we take the example when Crimea was occupied, then it was very clear, it’s illegal, we don’t recognise this, which means that we stop the trade with any products that come from Crimea,” Kallas said.

“We should have the same principled stance - you know this is illegal, everybody agrees - so we should stop trading with occupied [Palestinian] Territories,” she said.

When Russia invaded and annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in February 2014, by June, the EU had banned all goods from the territory and levied economic sanctions on Russia, later adopting restrictions on arms, energy and tech exports to Russia as well. 

The development comes as Israel is facing increasing pressure from its allies in the Western world as public approval of Israel has reached record lows. 

The UK announced sanctions on Israeli settlements on 8 September, and 10 other European countries and Canada signed a joint statement with Britain to “confirm their intention to introduce national and/or support European restrictions” on illegal settlement trade.

In response to the British government's decision, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar unveiled a series of counter-sanctions on the UK, including closing the British consulate in occupied East Jerusalem and banning 11 MPs from entering Israel.

US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee also hit back at the British government, accusing Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, who is Jewish, of "Jew hate" in response to the move and threatening retaliation.

It follows a move from Israel to approve the construction of the E1 settlement project in August to build an unprecedented 3,400 new housing units on occupied Palestinian territory, drawing widespread international condemnation.

Kallas reportedly has privately compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to apartheid South Africa, standing in sharp contrast to her statements in support of Israel, stating at a press conference in March 2025 that the EU stood “in solidarity with Israel and its people” and affirmed the importance of the country’s security for the EU.