The European Union threatens to "punish" Israel

The British newspaper, the Financial Times, revealed in its Monday issue that European Union foreign ministers are considering imposing sanctions on Israel and intensifying pressure on its Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over its refusal to establish a Palestinian state and move forward with the two-state solution.

The newspaper reported that the European Union urged its member states to impose "sanctions" on Israel if Netanyahu continues to oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state, while Brussels is looking to intensify pressure on the prime minister to push efforts towards establishing long-term peace.

For his part, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres affirmed yesterday, Sunday, that refusing to accept the two-state solution and “denying the right of the Palestinian people to establish a state is unacceptable,” and said: The right of the Palestinian people to build their state must be recognized by everyone. 

In this, the Financial Times explained that the European Union’s declared long-term position is a two-state solution, a demand that the Union’s leaders have repeated since the attack launched by Hamas on October 7th of last year against Israel and the subsequent blatant aggression launched by Israel against Gaza that caused... More than 25,000 Palestinian civilians were killed.

The official, who declined to be named, added, "There are incentives and benefits to Israel provided by the European Union under the Association Agreement that could make it think seriously about the matter."

The EU's demands set out in the document include the establishment of "an independent Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace and security, with full normalization and fundamental development of security and economic cooperation."