Paris: A coalition of six countries Tuesday issued new joint sanctions on Israeli settlers and settlements in the West Bank, including a hard-line Israeli cabinet minister already sanctioned by Western countries, escalating pressure on Israel over a wave of violence against Palestinians in the occupied territory.
The top diplomats of Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Norway, and New Zealand announced the moves in a joint statement.
“Extremist violent settlers, with the backing of their supporters, continue to attack Palestinians and abuse their human rights,” they said. “For too long, violent settlers have been able to act with near impunity, and settlement expansion and creation of outposts continue with the support and facilitation of the government of Israel.”
Israel’s hard-line government, dominated by settler leaders and supporters, has overseen a surge in settlement construction over the past four years.
At the same time, the West Bank has experienced a wave of settler violence against Palestinians, with assailants rarely punished. The international community overwhelmingly considers Israeli settlement construction in these areas to be illegal and an obstacle to peace.
The sanctions come amid growing criticism across Europe over Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza and policies in the occupied West Bank. However, they are not like the sweeping ones imposed on countries such as Iran or Russia, leaving broader trade, including of weapons, untouched.
In Tuesday’s announcement, each country announced its own set of measures to be taken.
France has barred Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich from entering the country as part of new sanctions targeting “those responsible for the intensification of settlement activity and violence in the West Bank,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in a social media post.
Smotrich, who heads a far-right religious party and has led an aggressive expansion of Israeli settlements, recently ordered the eviction of a Palestinian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank that has long been targeted by Israeli authorities.
He said the measure was a response to reports that he may be a target of international war crimes prosecutors from the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
The court generally does not publicly reveal arrest warrants or requests for them.
Barrot said Smotrich, who oversees Israeli settlement policy, is “actively promoting” the annexation of the West Bank, the expansion of Israeli settlements there, the re-establishment of settlements in Gaza, and policies aimed at the economic collapse of the Palestinian Authority. He said this has had harmful consequences for Palestinians.
“These are policies that the overwhelming majority of the international community cannot accept,” Barrot said, adding that France also has barred four leaders of settler organisations and 21 settlers accused of violence from entering French territory.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the UK was imposing sanctions on six entities and on individuals involved in financing settlements or violent acts.
“We have targeted some of the most notorious individuals, the most significant settler entities, and the extremist figures in the Israeli cabinet who are inciting these acts,” she said to the House of Commons.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry said the sanctions were “disgraceful measures” that “only serve to fuel that antisemitism.”
Israel’s Ambassador to France Joshua Zarka told The Associated Press Monday, ahead of the sanctions, that they might be counterproductive in the end.
“Sanctioning government entities or government-connected entities is not helping in any way. On the contrary, it is actually helping those extremists,” he said.
The coordinated plan follows new sanctions from the 27-nation European Union on both Hamas leaders and Israeli settler organisations and leaders.
More than 700,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories captured by Israel in 1967 from Jordan and sought by the Palestinians for a future state.
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