By Agence France Presse and ReutersPublished On 13 Jul 202613 Jul 2026European Union foreign ministers met in Brussels on Monday to discuss whether there is enough support for new measures to curb trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.“Everybody agrees that the situation in the West Bank is really intolerable,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said at the start of a meeting.“What is happening in the West Bank is actually making it more and more impossible that the two-state solution ever can come into effect.”Here is more about the ongoing EU discussions on Israeli settlements.What options are the EU foreign ministers discussing?The discussions are based on a confidential paper by the European Commission that floats three different options – an import licensing system, prohibitive tariffs, or a ban – an unnamed senior EU diplomat and a European official said, Reuters reported.The EU has long struggled to take major decisions on Middle East policy because of deep and long-standing divisions among its 27 member countries, particularly on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Diplomats said the debate at a meeting in Brussels on Monday was not expected to yield any concrete decisions, but would help to sound out if there is enough support to move forward.Are Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank expanding?Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the territory, excluding east Jerusalem, among some three million Palestinians.This month, Israel’s Security Cabinet has approved a plan to establish 13 new settlements in the central occupied West Bank. Advertisement The number of new settlements has soared recently, according to new data from the Palestinian Forum for Israeli Studies (MADAR). After averaging approximately eight outposts annually between 2012 and 2 …
