From a €4m holiday resort in rural Finland to demolished Bedouin villages in the Negev, the same Israeli developer exposes how Europe’s new trade curbs on settlements still leave the door wide open for settlement-linked firms to profit on EU soil.
Neither Ireland nor Luxembourg have been authorising sales of Israeli bonds since the start of September, potentially costing Israel €2.2bn a year, as shock over Gaza and West Bank grows.
‘Bullies cannot be appeased’: Pressure mounts on EU to shield ICC from new US sanctionsWhen the big brother becomes a bully, who stands up to him? The question is no longer simply whether Brussels supports international justice, but whether it is ready to take practical steps to protect it.
Brazilian leader Lula da Silva will give the opening speech at the UN in New York on Tuesday morning, in which he will “personally” warn Donald Trump not to interfere in Brazilian elections, before Trump takes the floor.
The revelation of the West Bank expansion plan came the same day European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen condemned the original, smaller scheme in her State of the Union speech in Strasbourg.
Belgium’s minister for migration was accused of being “the shame of this government” during a heated debate on Wednesday on the fate of 13 Gazans who won scholarships to Belgian universities but have been denied transport so that they can take up their places.
EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen’s answer to spiralling Russian aggression was one new strategy document and two new sets of meetings. Her answer to Israel’s killing spree was to call it “unacceptable”.
Belgium’s immigration minister has gone on the warpath against evacuating 13 students from Gaza, but they might still be flying out despite her anti-Arab and pro-Israel dog-whistling.
A total of 34 European universities remain involved in 38 Horizon Europe research projects with Israeli entities linked to defence or dual-use technology – despite pledges to suspend such ties, according to a new investigation by Investigate Europe.
An investigation by Investigate Europe reveals how Israeli academic organisations and legal allies are fighting to keep research ties with European universities alive — putting human rights, academic freedom and Israel’s future in Horizon Europe at the centre of a growing legal and political battle.
Serbia’s outpouring of grief for the man behind the 1995 Srebrenica genocide exposed a grotesque, regressive nationalism lurking below the surface in politics and society.
A coordinated move led by the UK and France, plus seven more EU states, to impose sanctions on trade from illegal Israeli settlements has prompted a furious reaction from Tel Aviv and Washington.
It seems impossible not to mention Gaza if you meet Israelis on holiday in EuropeI made friends with two Israeli couples while on holiday in Greece this summer and when the conversation inevitably turned to Palestine, I was struck by how misinformed, scared, and ashamed they were.
Families who once dreamed of model reconstruction in Zawtar al-Gharbiyah now shuttle in by day to clear debris and flee by night. Trapped between Israeli shelling, and absent aid, they look at the state who is too weak to protect them.
“We should make it more difficult for Russian diplomats and spies to operate around Europe … reducing the numbers of Russian diplomats, many of whom are serving agents and just gearing up for a crisis,” Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski said.
Sanctions against Itamar Ben-Gvir are long overdue – and finally in reach. But the focus on sanctioning individual ministers must not replace using the EU’s leverage over Israel and the settlements.
Russian airstrikes killed a total of 400 Ukrainian civilians in July because Kyiv did not have enough interceptor missiles, but Greece and Spain declined to open their stockpiles at an EU defence ministers’ meeting in the Druids Glen golf club.
![[Interview] Irish liberal MEP Barry Andrews: ‘Trade measures are the EU’s only real leverage over Israel’](https://static.euobserver.com/2026/07/20250827_EP-189673A_AH1_0412-e1785396809246-2400x1295.jpg)
Barry Andrews said his visit to the West Bank convinced him that what he calls Israeli “apartheid” can only be tackled by EU economic pressure.
Whether Benjamin Netanyahu, Gadi Eisenkot, or Naftali Bennett becomes the next Israeli prime minister, the differences will concern the degree of ethnic cleansing, annexation, colonial-settler expansion, and the number of settler attacks that will be tolerated — not the end of such policies and practices. For Palestinians, no matter who wins, statehood will still be denied.
Frankfurt is among the few plausible options to take on EU handling of Israeli bonds, after Ireland and Luxembourg de-banked them on human rights grounds.