EU countries push for trade ban with Israeli settlements

Most European Union countries on Monday called for the bloc to put forward a proposal on banning the import of products from Israeli settlements, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.“The option that got the most support was banning the trade with the illegal settlements,” Kallas said after a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers.“We tasked ambassadors to take this work forward and also ministers agreed that, if necessary, we can also reconvene an extraordinary meeting,” she added.Several EU countries – including Ireland, the Netherlands, and Spain – have already imposed their own trade restrictions on Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, considered illegal under international law.Under pressure for the EU as a whole to take measures, the bloc’s executive last week laid out options to curb trade with settlements, including a ban.“These are not options against Israel. These are options against the illegal settlements that undermine the two-state solution,” Kallas said, after calling the situation in the Israeli-occupied West Bank “intolerable”.The slow pace of the discussion has angered countries keen to curb trade – with some diplomats accusing the European Commission of dragging its feet.