The United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand and Norway have imposed coordinated sanctions targeting networks involved in financing, enabling and carrying out settler violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The move on Tuesday came in response to record illegal settlement expansion and rising violence by settlers in the West Bank, according to multiple statements.
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“With our British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, and Norwegian partners, we are today imposing new sanctions against those responsible for intensifying colonisation and violence in the West Bank,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in a post on social media.
After issuing the new sanctions, the six Western countries warned that they were prepared to take further measures if the Israeli government failed to adequately address the situation on the ground.
Barrot noted that France has also banned Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, three leaders of settler groups and 21 settlers from entering the country over violence in the West Bank.
Israeli reaction
Israel’s foreign ministry denounced the sanctions shortly after they were announced.
“Israel firmly rejects the disgraceful measures adopted by foreign governments against Israeli citizens, entities, and a government minister,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Oren Marmorstein said in a statement.
“The real essence of these steps is the attempt to impose a political stance regarding the right of Jews to settle in the Land of Israel and concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – camouflaged as measures against violence,” added Marmorstein.
The UK government urged British businesses and citizens to refrain from conducting financial activities in Israeli settlements in the West Bank deemed illegal under international law.
“I have strengthened our business risk guidance to make it clear and unambiguous: if you are a British citizen or business, you should not conduct any economic and financial activities in illegal Israeli settlements,” Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told Parliament.
“We believe that violent settler groups should not be profiting from the land that they have seized from Palestinians,” Cooper added, saying the Israeli “government has condemned some settler violence, but that rings hollow when there is scant accountability”.
In a statement, the British government also repeated its call on the Israeli government to end settlement expansion, clamp down on settler violence, prosecute those responsible, and lift ongoing restrictions on the functioning of the Palestinian economy.
‘Not enough’
Responding to the UK government announcement of the new sanctions, Amnesty International said they were “a step, but they are not enough”.
“If Ministers are serious about sanctioning those ‘who support and sponsor violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank’, they must act on the reality that settlements and settler violence are state policy – directed and funded from the top,” Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty International UK’s crisis response manager, said in a statement.
“Targeting settler financing networks while the ministers who run this campaign face no consequences is not meaningful accountability – it leaves the architects untouched. The UK must sanction Benjamin Netanyahu, Orit Strock and Israel Katz as well as former defence minister Yoav Gallant,” he said.
Benedict also called for the UK to ban “all trade with settlements and halt cooperation and investment relations enabling unlawful occupation and apartheid”.
In a similar reaction, Christian Aid, a British charity, said “it is pathetic merely to ‘advise’ British businesses against activity in illegal Israeli settlements when there are no real consequences for them”.
“The UK Government must ban all trade and investment with Israeli settlements before Palestine is erased entirely,” Jennifer Larbie, Christian Aid’s head of UK Influencing, said in a statement.
Israel rejects charges that its troops protect settlers during attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, saying such actions are rogue incidents that violate military protocol and are investigated.
An inquiry by the United Nations has found that Israeli authorities were directly involved in settler attacks that have killed, injured and displaced Palestinians in the West Bank, while Israeli forces provided protection for settlers.
Under Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the UK has paused free trade talks with Israel and suspended some arms export licences. Like France, the UK has also imposed sanctions on far-right Israeli cabinet members Itamar Ben-Gvir and Smotrich.
Last year, the UK joined allies, including France and Canada, in recognising a Palestinian state.