German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul currently sees no reason for further sanctions against Israel or individual ministers in the Israeli government.
“At this stage, the German government believes that our voice is being heard in Israel,” Wadephul said in Berlin on Wednesday during a meeting with his Hungarian counterpart Anita Orbán in Berlin.
He added that “further measures are not warranted at this time.”
Wadephul had been asked whether the EU foreign ministers would discuss new sanctions against Israel at their meeting next Monday, or whether the German government was considering sanctions against Israeli ministers.
He replied that the German government was coordinating closely with its European counterparts on this issue. He was not sure whether the matter would be on the agenda for the EU foreign ministers.
The German government has “a clear position on international law,” he said. The Israeli government had been “clearly told that we believe this illegal settlement policy should not continue.”
In addition to Israel’s settlement policy in the West Bank, a video circulated by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has sparked international outrage.
It shows detained activists from a Gaza aid flotilla stopped by Israel in international waters near Cyprus in mid-May in a humiliating manner.
The Italian judiciary launched a preliminary investigation against Ben-Gvir once it became clear that Italian activists were affected. In France, too, an investigation is under way into the treatment of the activists.
Both Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have distanced themselves from the far-right minister’s conduct.