Malta is pushing for EU condemnation of Israel, Fearne says

Malta will be one of the countries pushing for the European Union to issue a joint statement condemning Israel's recent actions, Foreign Minister Chris Fearne has said.

"I had a conversation with the Israeli Minister for Foreign Affairs, and I spoke without holding back," Fearne said on ONE's Paperscan programme on Sunday, referring to his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Sa'ar. "We are one of the countries pushing for the European Union to issue a condemnation," he added.

The foreign minister said on Sunday that the push follows what he called a "tender" issued by Israel in recent days for construction on Palestinian land. 

The comment comes in the same week that MaltaToday reported Malta will now recognise the Teudat Ma'avar, an Israeli travel document that had, until now, been the one document not accepted at Malta's borders anywhere in the Schengen area.

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Sa'ar welcomed the move on X, saying it would let "all Israelis who wish to travel to beautiful Malta" do so.

The Maltese Foreign Ministry only commented about its decision after questions from MaltaToday. But questions as to whether the timing was appropriate and whether Chris Fearne raised concerns over developments in the West Bank with his Israeli counterpart, remained unanswered.

The West Bank has seen what the UN's human rights office has described as a record rise in settler violence, with nearly 700 Palestinians displaced by settler attacks in the first four months of 2026 alone.

In May, the UK, France, Germany and six other Western governments warned jointly that continued settlement expansion breaches international law, and the EU has since sanctioned a number of settler-linked people and groups.

On the programme, Fearne also explained why Malta continues to insist that EU foreign policy decisions, including any statement on Israel, be agreed by unanimity rather than by majority vote.

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He said that when he sits at the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, Malta's voice carries the same weight as Germany's or France's, and that this would no longer hold true under a system where larger states simply outvote smaller ones.

He said the position was not about being against Palestine or in favour of Israel, but about defending Malta's own standing at the table.

A number of EU governments are currently pushing to move away from unanimous voting on foreign policy matters, a shift Fearne said Malta continues to resist, mindful of the country's history of larger powers deciding matters on its behalf.

Fearne, who returned to Cabinet with the foreign affairs brief after Labour's re-election in May, said the summer had been a busy one, with EU counterparts remaining in daily contact over email despite the holiday period, given how quickly developments abroad, from the Israel-Iran conflict to oil prices, were moving.