Slovenia bars two far-right Israeli ministers

LJUBLJANA (AFP): Slovenia announced on Thursday that it would ban two far-right Israeli ministers from entering in what authorities said was a first in the European Union.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich will be declared “persona non grata,” the Slovenian government said in a statement, accusing them of inciting “extreme violence and serious violations of the human rights of Palestinians” with “their genocidal statements”.

In June, Australia, Canada, Britain, New Zealand and Norway imposed similar sanctions on Smotrich and Ben Gvir, key coalition partners in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Ben Gvir and Smotrich have drawn international criticism for their hard-line stance on the Gaza war and comments about settlements in the occupied West Bank, the other Palestinian territory.

Smotrich, who lives in a West Bank settlement, has supported the expansion of settlements and has called for the territory’s annexation.

“This is the first measure of this nature in the EU,” Slovenia’s Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon said of the ban.

On May 21, President Natasa Pirc Musar in an address to the European parliament urged the EU to take stronger action, condemning “the genocide” in Gaza.

Slovenia was in May among six European countries to say that they “firmly reject any demographic or territorial change in Gaza” after Israel announced plans to expand its military offensive in the Palestinian territory.

Last year, Slovenia announced it was recognising a Palestinian state after Ireland, Norway and Spain, in moves partly fuelled by condemnation of Israel’s bombing of Gaza after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel.

Nearly 150 countries recognise a Palestinian state.