Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway said Tuesday they have imposed sanctions on two far-right Israeli government ministers for allegedly "inciting extremist violence" against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The decision by Western governments friendly to Israel was a sharp rebuke of Israel’s settlement policies in the West Bank and of settler violence, which has spiked since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the war in the Gaza Strip.
Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, key partners in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, are champions of Israeli settlement who support continuing the war in Gaza, facilitating what they call the voluntary emigration of its Palestinian population and the rebuilding of Jewish settlements there.
They could now face asset freezes and travel bans.
The five countries’ foreign ministers said in a joint statement that Ben-Gvir and Smotrich "have incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights. Extremist rhetoric advocating the forced displacement of Palestinians and the creation of new Israeli settlements is appalling and dangerous."
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the two men "have been inciting violence against Palestinian people for months and months and months" and "encouraging egregious abuses of human rights."
Israel's Foreign Ministry said earlier it had been informed of the sanctions.
Smotrich, the finance minister, wrote on social media that he learned of the sanctions while he was inaugurating a new West Bank settlement. "We are determined to continue building," he said.
"We overcame Pharoah, we’ll overcome Starmer’s Wall." Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, wrote on social media, referring to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar called the sanctions decision "outrageous." He said he had discussed it with Netanyahu and they would meet next week to discuss Israel's response.
Netanyahu is the target of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court last year over alleged war crimes in Gaza, part of a global wave of outrage at Israel's conduct during its 20-month war against Hamas. Netanyahu has denied the allegations and accused the court of being biased against Israel.
The Biden administration took the rare step of sanctioning radical Israeli settlers implicated in violence in the occupied West Bank — sanctions that were lifted by President Donald Trump.
Eitay Mack, an Israeli human rights lawyer who spent years campaigning for the sanctions on Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, along with violent West Bank settlers, described Tuesday's move as "historic."
"It means the wall of immunity that Israeli politicians had has been broken," he said. "It’s unbelievable that it took so long for Western governments to sanction Israeli politicians, and the fact that it's being done while Trump is president is quite amazing."
Mack added: "It is a message to Netanyahu himself that he could be next."
Israel captured the West Bank, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for a future state.
Successive Israeli governments have promoted settlement growth and construction stretching back decades. It has exploded under Netanyahu’s far-right coalition, which has settlers in key Cabinet posts.
There are now well over 100 settlements across the West Bank that house more than 500,000 settlers. The settlers have Israeli citizenship, while the territory's 3 million Palestinians live under Israeli military rule, with the Palestinian Authority administering population centers.
Most of the international community considers the settlements illegal, and Palestinians see them as the greatest obstacle to an eventual two-state solution, which is still seen internationally as the only way to resolve the conflict.
