“A brave decision.” Palestine welcomes Spain’s imposition of sanctions on Israeli settlers

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry praised the "courageous step" taken by Spain by imposing sanctions on Israeli settlers, and called for the imposition of more sanctions on the entire "colonial settlement system."

Palestine on Monday welcomed Spain's imposition of sanctions on Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

This came in a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, following Spain’s announcement that it had begun implementing sanctions on a first group of 12 settlers.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said that it "welcomes the Spanish government's decision, expressed by Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albarez, to begin imposing sanctions on a first group of 12 violent extremist Israeli colonists in the occupied West Bank."

She considered the decision "courageous and an important step in the right direction towards the necessity of imposing more sanctions on the entire colonial settlement system throughout the entire territory of the State of Palestine."

The Palestinian Ministry called on "all countries to impose deterrent sanctions, not only on the extremist colonialists, but also to place their terrorist organizations on terrorist lists."

The Foreign Ministry also called for "exerting pressure on the occupying state to force it to stop settlement activity, dismantle the armed colonialist militias, withdraw their weapons, and impose sanctions on those behind them."

Earlier Monday, the Spanish Foreign Minister said in a speech before the Joint Committee of the Spanish House of Representatives that the government had begun imposing sanctions on “a first group of 12 violent settlers.”

“We know that silence and inaction always work against victims,” Albarez added.

Thus, Spain joined the United States, Britain, and France in imposing sanctions on settlers in the West Bank.

Israeli settlers escalated their attacks on West Bank Palestinians and their property in conjunction with a devastating war waged by the Israeli army on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, which left tens of thousands of victims, most of them children and women, in addition to an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.

According to data from the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission (governmental), settlers carried out 2,410 attacks against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank during 2023, as a result of which 22 Palestinians were killed, including 10 after October 7, and 25 Bedouin communities were displaced, 22 of which after October 7. .

The United Nations and most of the international community consider the Israeli settlement in the territories occupied in 1967 illegal, and Israel calls for it to be stopped in vain, warning that it undermines the chances of addressing the conflict in accordance with the principle of the two-state solution.