France Tuesday banned Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich from entering the country, as part of coordinated sanctions with other countries over settler violence against Palestinians.
Smotrich is the second member of the Israeli government to be forbidden from entering France in recent months, after National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir was barred on May 23 for mocking activists detained by Israeli soldiers from a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying aid for the Palestinian territory.
The United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway already slapped a travel ban on both ministers in June last year over inciting violence against Palestinians.
Other countries have also banned the ministers, including Spain, Slovenia and most recently Ireland.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said his country was banning Smotrich because he “actively promotes the annexation of the West Bank, which he openly claims, the creation of new settlements in the West Bank, the re-colonisation of Gaza, the economic collapse of the Palestinian Authority and its harmful consequences for the Palestinian population”.
“This is a policy that the overwhelming majority of the international community, firmly committed to the two-state solution, cannot accept,” Barrot wrote on X.
France also banned four leaders of settler organisations and 21 violent settlers.
France’s sanctions were in coordination with Britain, Canada, Australia, Norway and New Zealand targeting “those responsible for the escalation of settlement activity and violence in the West Bank”, Barrot said.
Israel’s foreign ministry quickly condemned the sanctions as “disgraceful”.
“The real essence of these steps is the attempt to impose a political stance regarding the right of Jews to settle in the Land of Israel and concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — camouflaged as measures against violence,” ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said.
Norway said it would adopt the same sanctions as those announced by the European Union on May 28, as well as impose an entry ban targeting “20 violent settlers”, without naming them.
