More than 500 former EU prime ministers, diplomats and senior officials have called on the bloc to impose sanctions on those involved in a new Israeli settlement construction project in the West Bank which critics say will thwart the possibility of a two-state solution.
The statement singles out Germany and Italy as two member states which have vetoed tougher action against Israel at EU level, saying they are now "complicit" in blocking the two-state solution.
According to the statement, Israel will shortly award contracts for the first tranche of the E1 settlement project which "critically would cut the West Bank in two and render impossible the two-state solution, the only possible outcome that can resolve the Israel-Palestine conflict".
It adds: "Despite the drastic implications of this new land annexation the EU has taken no action to deter E1 nor, more generally, has the Union complied with its obligations under EU treaties and its duty to take action against violations of international law.
"While, commendably, some EU Member States have implemented national measures against illegal settlements, others including Germany and Italy continue to systematically block the adoption of any EU measures, thus becoming de facto complicit in undermining both EU values and the two-state solution."
The statement is the latest in a series of interventions by former EU ambassadors, senior officials and a number of former prime ministers and foreign ministers.
Signatories include former French prime ministers Dominique de Villepin and Alain Juppé, as well as former Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven and former Italian prime minister Massimo d'Alema.
The letter calls on the European Commission to bring forward legislation to sanction "all financial institutions and other providers of services to the implementation of E1 and other illegal settlements" and to prevent all EU trade with Israeli settlements in general.
"Concurrently, we call for the EU to implement long delayed proposals to suspend the trade provisions of the EU-Israel Association Agreement," the statement adds.
The signatories call on EU foreign ministers to take such actions at the meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg on 12 October.
The letter says there has been another year of violence and "ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the Israeli government on the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank.
It says that 1,400 Palestinians, including 200 children, have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire of October 2025.
"Since the heinous Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023, the shocking death toll inflicted by the IDF on Palestinians in Gaza has risen to 74,000, including over 21,600 children, with 175,000 persons injured.
"The humanitarian situation remains dire for the 2 million people crammed into under 40% of the land area of Gaza, with inadequate supplies of all essentials for human life - food, sanitation, electricity, shelter, medical supplies - due to draconian restrictions by the Israeli government in defiance of humanitarian principles and the ICJ’s provisional measures and Advisory Opinions of 2024/25," the letter states.
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