Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the European Union on Monday following new sanctions, accusing Brussels of moral bankruptcy while asserting that Israel and the United States defend civilization against jihadism.
EU Sanctions and Netanyahu’s Response
European Union foreign ministers recently adopted new sanctions against senior Hamas representatives and extremist settlers. Kaja Kallas emphasized on Monday that extremism and violence carry consequences. Netanyahu responded sharply, stating that while Israel and the U.S. perform the “dirty work” for Europe against jihadists in Iran and elsewhere, the EU shows moral bankruptcy by creating a false symmetry between Israelis and terrorists.
Netanyahu further characterized the punishment of Jews living in Judea and Samaria as unacceptable. He asserted that Israel would always protect the right of its citizens to live in the heart of their ancestral homeland.
The Israeli Occupation of the West Bank
Judea and Samaria is the official Israeli term for the West Bank, a territory seized during the 1967 Six-Day War that remains under occupation. Since the mid-1990s, parts of the territory have been co-administered by the Palestinian Authority. The names refer to historical kingdoms from the 9th century BC that occupied the area of the modern West Bank and Israel.
Approximately 3 million Palestinians and half a million Jewish settlers currently reside in the West Bank. Although the Israeli government supports settlement expansion, the majority of the international community considers Jewish settlement in this territory to be illegal.
Escalating Violence and Settlement Statistics
Human rights organizations have reported an increase in violence by extremist settler groups against Palestinians. In 2025, the UN recorded over 1,800 settler attacks resulting in casualties or property damage across 280 Palestinian communities. The EU has previously imposed sanctions on radical settlers.
There are now more than 700,000 settlers living in the occupied West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem. Most of these settlements were built entirely or partially on private Palestinian land.
