Updated
Updated · POLITICO Europe · Aug 18
German Lawmakers Urge EU to Sanction Ben-Gvir Over Call to Kill 30-40 Gazans Nightly
Updated
Updated · POLITICO Europe · Aug 18

German Lawmakers Urge EU to Sanction Ben-Gvir Over Call to Kill 30-40 Gazans Nightly

3 articles · Updated · POLITICO Europe · Aug 18

Summary

  • Senior lawmakers from Germany’s conservatives and Social Democrats pressed the EU to sanction Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir after remarks advocating regular killings in Gaza.
  • Ben-Gvir, in a podcast released Saturday, said Israel should "remove 30, 40" people every night and added that some Gazans were "not worthy of life" and "not even people."
  • The comments triggered an unusually sharp backlash from Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative camp, highlighting rare public criticism from a key European ally of Israel.
  • The push for EU sanctions elevates the dispute from political condemnation to a call for concrete punitive action against a sitting Israeli minister.

Insights

Why are German lawmakers demanding EU sanctions against an Israeli minister while their own government actively blocks the move?
Will global outrage over demands for nightly assassinations actually accelerate the controversial push to resettle the Gaza Strip?
Could targeting a radical official without military power inadvertently trigger the collapse of a massive international trade agreement?