What happened at passport control

Yossi Dagan, who heads the Samaria Regional Council, was forced to leave France after arriving at a Paris airport last week, according to a statement from his office issued on Wednesday. His office said that during passport control he was pulled aside and questioned, then informed that he was barred from entering French territory.

The statement did not specify the date of the episode or which airport it took place at. The Samaria Regional Council represents Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law.

France's stated grounds

The French foreign ministry did not confirm the deportation, but said Dagan is subject to an administrative ban from the territory because of his active role in implementing the settlement policy.

According to the ministry, settlement building is contrary to international law and undermines the two-state solution.

Israel's response

Israel's foreign ministry called the measure "completely unacceptable" and accused France of acting on clearly political and ideological grounds.

The ministry said Israel will demand an explanation from the French government and consider its next steps accordingly.

Wider dispute over the settlements

The incident lands in the middle of growing friction between Israel and European countries, particularly over West Bank settlements, which have proliferated under caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's outgoing right-wing government.

The report also points to the wider situation in the territory:

• •More than 500,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements, excluding annexed east Jerusalem, among roughly three million Palestinians.
• •Settler violence against Palestinians has increased significantly since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack that sparked the war in Gaza.
• •An AFP tally, drawing on Palestinian health ministry data, records more than 1,100 Palestinian deaths in the West Bank since that date, with Israeli soldiers responsible for most of them.
• •Israeli figures put the number of Israelis killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations over the same period at more than 50.

France has also taken settlement-related measures of its own. It was among several countries announcing in September their intention to sanction trade with West Bank settlements, and on Monday a French parliamentary committee adopted a bill aimed at banning the import of products from Israeli settlements and services contributing to settlement construction.