BRUSSELS, September 17 — The European Union’s top diplomat has called on member states to treat illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territories the way the bloc treated Russia’s annexation of Crimea, urging an EU-wide ban on settlement trade. Kaja Kallas, the European Commission Vice-President and High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, made the argument in an interview with The Irish Times published Friday, 11 September 2026.
She said Europe cannot be taken seriously while it remains divided on how to respond to the actions of the Israeli government and violent settlers, and encouraged nations to adopt what she described as a principled stance by backing a ban on settlement trade, which she noted is illegal under international law. Kallas acknowledged that the volume of trade with the settlements is small.
The symbolic weight, in her telling, is the point.
The Crimea precedent, invoked directly
She drew the comparison explicitly. When Crimea was occupied, she said, it was very clear, it’s illegal, we don’t recognise this, which means that we stop the trade with any products that come from Crimea. We should have the same principled stance — you know this is illegal, everybody agrees — so we should stop trading with occupied [Palestinian] Territories.
The record shows Russia invaded and annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in February 2014. By June 2014, the EU had banned all goods from the territory and levied economic sanctions on Russia, later adopting restrictions on arms, energy and technology exports to Russia as well.
According to the statement, the European Commission is under very clear pressure from national governments to table an EU-wide trade ban, and European institutions get a lot of bashing for their failure to sanction Israel amid its ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Pressure from national capitals
The push comes as Israel faces increasing pressure from its allies in the Western world. The UK announced sanctions on Israeli settlements on 8 September 2026, and 10 other European countries and Canada signed a joint statement with Britain to confirm their intention to introduce national and/or support European restrictions on illegal settlement trade. Israel’s response was swift.
Foreign Minister Gideon Saar unveiled a series of counter-sanctions on the UK, including closing the British consulate in occupied East Jerusalem and banning 11 MPs from entering Israel. US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee also hit back at the British government, accusing Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, who is Jewish, of Jew hate in response to the move and threatening retaliation.
The backdrop is the E1 settlement project, approved by Israel in August 2026 to build an unprecedented 3,400 new housing units on occupied Palestinian territory, which drew widespread international condemnation. Kallas reportedly has privately compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to apartheid South Africa. That stands in sharp contrast to her statements in support of Israel, including at a press conference in March 2025 where she said the EU stood in solidarity with Israel and its people and affirmed the importance of the country’s security for the EU.
She addressed a joint press conference with Lithuania’s prime minister, Mindaugas Sinkevičius, after their meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, on 7 September 2026. What to watch next is whether the Commission tables a formal trade measure and whether the national capitals now pressing for it convert that pressure into votes.
