The Green Party has called for stronger sanctions directed at Israeli politicians and military figures. According to Luise Amtsberg, the Green Party’s foreign policy spokeswoman, sanctions targeting individual settlement organizations are a positive step, but “are not enough”.
The EU foreign ministers had recently imposed new sanctions on three settlers and four settlement organizations. However, two major proposals-suspending the EU’s association agreement with Israel, or sanctioning Israeli Ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich-both failed to achieve a majority at the Foreign Affairs Council.
Amtsberg argued that any response to the escalating violence and impunity displayed by radical settler groups must include sanctioning Ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, as well as pushing for a partial suspension of the EU association agreement.
Furthermore, Helge Limburg, the Green Party group’s legal policy spokesperson, demanded sanctions against General Avi Bluth, who is responsible for the Palestinian West Bank. Limburg told the news magazine that General Bluth’s self-acknowledgment of committing war crimes in the West Bank must result in serious consequences. He stressed that the German government must impose personal sanctions not only on Bluth as the responsible general but also on Ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, who are deemed largely responsible for the escalation of the violence.