The foreign ministers of the European Union decided today to impose sanctions on four settler organizations linked to violence and the dispossession of Palestinians in the West Bank.
The organizations sanctioned are: Amana, HaShomer Yosh, Regavim, and Nachala. Alongside these organizations, the EU also decided to impose sanctions on three settlers who lead these groups. See details below.
Peace Now: This is a grave warning sign presented to us by the European Union. The rampant violence of settlers in the West Bank, encouraged and supported by the government, is leading Israel into a moral abyss and casting an indelible stain on the State of Israel. The European Union’s decision is also a call to the Israeli public to open its eyes and see the reality we have created through decades of control and settlement in the occupied territories. It is time to stop the deterioration and begin the long journey toward a political agreement and peace. The first step is stop settlement activity.
These are the organizations on which sanctions were imposed:
Amana
Amana is one of the most powerful settler organizations financially, politically, and in terms of its influence over the establishment of settlements and outposts on the ground. With assets estimated at approximately NIS 600 million and an annual budget of tens of millions of shekels, Amana is considered the “mother and father” of the illegal outposts, and in recent years also of the illegal agricultural farms that have become a central factor in settler violence against Palestinians.
A research by Peace Now found that Amana financed and assisted illegal farms and outposts that led to the dispossession and expulsion of Palestinians from their lands. In 2024, sanctions were imposed on Amana by the governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States (the latter lifted the sanctions following Trump’s election as president). Nevertheless, Amana continues to work toward the establishment of illegal outposts even today. For example, about a month ago, during the ceremony marking the establishment of the new outpost “Maoz Tzur” west of Ramallah — from whose surrounding areas Palestinians have already been dispossessed of thousands of dunams since its establishment — representatives of Amana participated, and the head of the regional council even thanked its members for their involvement in establishing it.
For more on Amana, see here.
HaShomer Yosh
HaShomer Yosh is an organization that operates hundreds of volunteers, mainly teenagers, who live in illegal agricultural outposts and assist farm owners with grazing, agricultural work, and the systematic expulsion of Palestinians from surrounding areas. HaShomer Yosh organizes the volunteers and provides them and the farm owners with equipment, clothing, meals, and activities for the youth. With the help of these volunteers, a small group of settlers (usually one family and several volunteer youths) can establish an agricultural farm, take over thousands of dunams, and push Palestinian farmers off their land.
Hundreds of testimonies and videos from recent years attest to the violence associated with these agricultural outposts, and there have been cases in which settlers wearing “HaShomer Yosh” shirts and hats were documented attacking peace activists and driving Palestinian families off the land.
In 2024, sanctions were imposed on the organization by the governments of the United Kingdom and the United States (the American sanctions were lifted following Trump’s election as president).
For more on HaShomer Yosh, see here.
Alongside the HaShomer Yosh organization, the EU also decided to impose sanctions on the organization’s CEO until recently, Avichai Swissa. In addition to his activities within the organization, he personally established an illegal outpost (“Nof HaMishkan”) near the villages of Jalud and Qaryut, whose residents have suffered in recent months from daily settler violence, which has even led to the killing and injury of several residents by settlers.
In this video, Swissa boasts about land-clearing work carried out on privately owned Palestinian land, among the Palestinians’ olive trees.
Regavim
Regavim is an organization that works to promote settlement expansion and the dispossession of Palestinians from land in the West Bank and within Israel. Regavim’s website in Hebrew states that “the Regavim Movement applies continuous pressure on all legal, governmental, and judicial systems through legal, judicial, parliamentary, and public means, while maintaining ongoing oversight of their actions and performance in these areas. At the same time, the movement works to formulate and promote practical proposals and ideas, as well as to deepen public awareness of the importance of protecting national lands.”
The organization has submitted dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of petitions to the courts demanding that the state demolish Palestinian construction in the West Bank and within Israel. This legal pressure led to demolition of Palestinian structures and contributed to the general increase in such demoltions.
During the war in Gaza, Regavim supported and funded the organization Tzav 9, which worked to halt and disrupt the transfer of humanitarian aid into Gaza. Tzav 9 was sanctioned by the European Union and the United States (the U.S. sanctions were lifted following Trump’s election).
Alongside the Regavim organization, the EU also decided to impose sanctions on the organization’s CEO, Meir Deutsch.
Nachala
Nachala is a movement working to promote settlement in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The movement organizes groups of settlers to establish new outposts and openly boasts of its involvement in establishing several illegal outposts, among them the Evyatar outpost, following whose establishment dozens of residents of the nearby village of Beita were killed or injured while protesting against it; the Givat Eitam outpost, from which several violent settler attacks against nearby Palestinian residents originated; and more recently, Nachala shared a fundraising campaign for the Kerem Hamami outpost, which violently prevents hundreds of Palestinians from accessing their land.
The British government imposed sanctions on Nachala in May 2025, stating that “Nachala has been involved in facilitating, inciting, promoting and providing logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts and forced displacement of Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, activities which cause the psychological suffering of Palestinians, and which often lead to violence perpetrated against Palestinians.”
Alongside the organization of Nachala, the EU also decided to impose sanctions on one of it’s central leaders, Daniela Weiss.