The call by Belgium, which currently chairs the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU — the bloc’s intergovernmental part — comes amid growing reports of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied territories.
“With regard to the trade that comes from these occupied territories, let’s send out a clear signal … That’s why we’re looking for other partners to give a clear signal that what’s going on in the West Bank is not something we simply accept,” De Croo said in a video statement shared with POLITICO.
“We asked our services to find like-minded countries to have more volume. In our European presidency, we are giving direction and trying as hard as we can to gather countries around us — I think in this conflict we’ve done that several times and we’ve done it successfully,” he added.
