Slovenia bars far-right Israeli cabinet ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich

Slovenia has banned far-right Israeli cabinet ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich from entering the country.

Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon declared the pair personae non gratae on Thursday in what she said was a first for a European Union country.

“We are breaking new ground,” she said.

In a statement, the Slovenian government accused Israel’s National Security Minister Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Smotrich of inciting “extreme violence and serious violations of the human rights of Palestinians” with “their genocidal statements”.

It also noted that both cabinet ministers “publicly advocate the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the forced evictions of Palestinians, and call for violence against the civilian Palestinian population”.

There was no immediate reaction from Israel’s government.

Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, key coalition partners in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, have drawn international criticism for their hard-line stance on the Gaza war and on illegal settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank.

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

Settlements are illegal under international law. Last July, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s continued presence in occupied Palestinian territory was unlawful, a decision Israel has ignored.

Smotrich has previously called for “total annihilation” in Gaza and said that a Palestinian town in the West Bank should be “wiped out”. Ben-Gvir was an open admirer of Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli who massacred 29 Palestinians as they prayed in Hebron in 1994. He has been convicted multiple times by Israeli courts for “incitement to racism”.

Despite the ministers’ positions, Netanyahu relies heavily on support from the two and from their factions in parliament for the survival of his government.

On May 21, Slovenia’s President Natasa Pirc Musar told the European Parliament that the EU needed to take stronger action against Israel, condemning “the genocide” in Gaza.

Fajon said Slovenia had decided to make the move after EU foreign ministers did not agree on joint action against Israel over charges of human rights violations at a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday.

She said other measures were being prepared, without going into detail.

In June, Britain, Norway, Australia, New Zealand and Canada imposed sanctions on the two Israeli ministers, accusing them of inciting violence against Palestinians.

Last year, Slovenia announced it was recognising a Palestinian state, following on the heels of Norway, Spain, and the Republic of Ireland.