The French Executive has communicated this Tuesday that it has decided to prevent the entry into France of the Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, whom it accuses of "actively promoting the annexation of the West Bank" and of supporting the expansion of settlements in Palestinian territory, among other actions.
The announcement was made by the French Foreign Minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, within the framework of a new package of sanctions coordinated with the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Norway against "those responsible for the intensification of colonization and acts of violence in the West Bank".
"On a national level, we have banned entry to our territory for Minister Bezalel Smotrich, four leaders of settler organizations, and 21 violent settlers," stated the head of French diplomacy in a message disseminated on social media.
Barrot stressed that "Smotrich actively promotes the annexation of the West Bank, which he openly claims, the creation of new settlements in the West Bank, the colonization of Gaza, the economic collapse of the Palestinian Authority, and its detrimental consequences for the Palestinian population."
The French minister added that "this is a policy that the vast majority of the international community, firmly committed to the two-state solution, cannot accept," and thus concluded his statement, while neither Smotrich nor Israeli authorities have reacted to the measure so far.
This decision comes a little more than two weeks after Paris announced that it was banning, "with immediate effect," the entry into the country of the Israeli Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, following the treatment of participants in the last humanitarian flotilla bound for Gaza, intercepted by Israel in international waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
Ben Gvir and Smotrich are among the most prominent representatives of the hardest sector of the Israeli Government, led by Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud and supported by far-right and ultranationalist parties, in a context of growing international reproach for Israel's actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and for the resurgence of settler violence.
According to International Law, all settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. However, the Government of Israel distinguishes between authorized and unauthorized settlements, considering only the latter as illegal, despite criticism from the international community and rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on this matter.