France says West Bank violence justifies its sanctions against Israeli minister Ben-Gvir

PARIS, Aug 19 - French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot condemned on Wednesday violence in the West Bank by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, and added that this justified France's recent sanctions against Israel's far-right police minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.• "What is happening today in the West Bank is utterly disgraceful and should fill us all with revulsion," Barrot wrote on X.• "This is why we have sanctioned Israeli minister Ben-Gvir, whose recent comments are unacceptable and inhuman," added Barrot.• In May, France announced it was banning Ben-Gvir from French territory.• Barrot reiterated that new sanctions could be implemented against Israeli settlers deemed to be involved in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.• In June, Britain, Canada, France and Norway announced coordinated sanctions against Israeli networks involved in financing, enabling and carrying out violence in the West Bank.• Israel's foreign ministry rejected the June measures and said the governments imposing them had failed to control antisemitism and were fuelling it with such sanctions.• Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have settled among millions of Palestinians in land captured by Israel in a 1967 war.• Nearly all countries and a range of U.N. bodies consider that such settlements violate international law, although Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the land. REUTERS