UK imposes sanctions on seven groups supporting West Bank settlers | foreign policy

Britain's Foreign Office announced sanctions against seven organizations supporting illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, but held off on punishing two extremists in the Israeli government as former Foreign Secretary David Cameron had planned.

In an interview with the BBC on Tuesday, Cameron said he had planned to impose sanctions on Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gbir and was concerned that the Labor government had not adopted his proposals. He said he held off on taking action in the spring because he was advised it would be too political during the general election.

The Foreign Office said the latest sanctions had been in preparation for several weeks and were not a knee-jerk response to Cameron's revelations.

The sanctions are against three illegal settler outposts and four organizations that the Foreign Office said had supported and sponsored violence against West Bank communities. The United Nations says there has been an unprecedented rise in settler violence, with 1,400 attacks against Palestinians recorded since October 2023.

Current Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “When I visited the West Bank earlier this year, I met Palestinians whose communities were suffering terrible violence at the hands of Israeli settlers.

The Israeli government's inaction has created an environment of impunity where settler violence continues to grow unchecked. Settlers surprisingly targeted schools and families with young children.

He pledged that further asset freezes would be imposed to stop these heinous human rights abuses.

The sanctioned outposts are Tirzah Valley Farm, Meitarim, and Shuvi Eretz. Among the organizations affected is Amana, which is considered a central force in the Israeli settler movement and is already under sanctions by the Canadian government.

Amana, through its Binyanei Bar Amana subsidiary, has been involved in the establishment of many settlements and unauthorized outposts. The goal is to bring one million settlers to the West Bank.

These are the third sanctions imposed on settlers by the Foreign Office and were announced an hour after Anneliese Dodds, the development secretary, had a tough time facing angry opponents, mainly from her own party, in the House of Commons. The government imposed additional sanctions on Israel for repeated violations of international humanitarian law.

Cameron previously told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: Smotrich and Gvir said things like encouraging people to block aid convoys from entering Gaza and encouraging the terrible things being done by extreme settlers in the West Bank.

He said he needed to tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that government ministers who are extremist and who behave in this way are prepared to use the sanctions regime to say this is not enough and must stop.

Cameron said the Labor government's ban on partial arms sales was a mistake and made no sense at a time when Israel had to protect itself from state-to-state attacks from Iran.

He said: There are other things we can do to put pressure on Netanyahu and say: Of course we respect your right to self-defense, but we expect you to act according to the law.

Last December, Cameron took to social media to announce a travel ban had been imposed on a small group of illegal settlers, saying: We are banning those responsible for settler violence from entering the UK. Please commit these threatening actions.

In the BBC interview, Cameron continued to defend the thrust of Israel's policy to eradicate the threat posed by Hamas and Hezbollah.

He said: On October 7, Israel continued to be attacked by Hamas from the south, as well as rocket attacks from Hezbollah from the north. We all want this conflict to end, but it must be done in a sustainable way so that it does not start again. That is why it is right to support Israel’s right to self-defense. But it is not a blank check, nor is it unconditional. We want to see aid reach Gaza and the UN's role in Lebanon is respected.

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