Regavim challenges European sanctions in Luxembourg court

Israeli conservative organization Regavim and its CEO Meir Deutsch have filed an unprecedented lawsuit with the European Court in Luxembourg, demanding the full annulment of sanctions imposed by the EU Council last May. This is the first time an Israeli public association has challenged European sanctions through the EU's highest judicial body. The defense is led by lawyers Salomé Lemettre from Paris and Nick Kaufman from Jerusalem. In the lawsuit, the lawyers criticize the quality of Brussels' evidentiary basis, arguing that the sanctions rely on materials from biased media and reports from far-left organizations. As an example, they cite the episode of the demolition of a school in the village of Jabbat al-Dhib: the organization emphasizes that the demolition was carried out by Israeli authorities by court order due to the building's hazardous condition, not at the whim of activists. Regavim calls the sanctions anti-democratic because they were adopted without prior hearings and proper judicial review. The sanctions have blocked donations from EU citizens and cooperation with European banks and payment systems. Deutsch stated that Brussels cynically uses legal and financial levers to suppress critics of its policy in the Middle East, and that the process aims to protect all of Israeli civil society.