EU Envoy Compares West Bank to Crimea; Israel Rejects Analogy

The European Union's High Representative for International Relations, Kaja Kallas, has drawn a parallel between Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and Crimea. In an interview with The Irish Times, Kallas stated that the EU "should treat illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank the same way it treated Crimea after the Russian invasion of Ukraine." She explained that "a ban on trade with occupied territories would be a principled step by the EU." The article notes that the EU has struggled to implement bloc-wide sanctions against Israeli settlements due to disagreements among member states, with individual countries adopting such measures independently. Kallas appears to support broader sanctions, deeming them "appropriate."

Following Kallas's statement, Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a sharp response. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar declared that the parallel drawn by Kallas "lacks any factual or legal basis and is completely unacceptable." He further stated, "Judea and Samaria have never belonged to a Palestinian state, which has never existed."