Britain, Canada, France and Norway have announced new coordinated strikes against Israeli networks involved in financing, facilitating and carrying out acts of violence in the occupation.
The move comes amid escalating violence by Israeli settlers, which diplomats say is aimed at undermining prospects for settlement.
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis have settled among millions of Palestinians in areas Israel captured in the 1967 war. Almost all countries and various UN bodies consider these settlements to violate international law, although Israel disputes this, citing historical and biblical ties to the land.
The four countries’ measures were coordinated with sanctions already announced last week by Australia and New Zealand, underscoring the growing discontent of many Western countries with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which has expanded the settlements.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the four countries, along with Australia, said the measures were aimed at “holding extremist settlers accountable for the appalling levels of violence against Palestinian civilians”.
“We continue to call on the government of Israel to take steps to ensure meaningful accountability for the violence in the West Bank,” they added.
Israel reacts
Israel’s foreign ministry rejected the measures, arguing that the governments imposing them have failed to control anti-Semitism and are reinforcing it with such sanctions.
“The real essence of these measures is an attempt to impose a political position on the right of Jews to settle in the Land of Israel and on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — disguised as measures against violence,” the ministry said.
The Gesa Council, which represents the municipal councils of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, did not immediately comment.
The Israeli government has acknowledged and at times condemned incidents of settler violence, while opposing foreign sanctions against Israelis and entities associated with the West Bank, where it says Jews have a right to live.
Sanctions also against the Israeli finance minister
Tuesday’s sanctions did not all target the same individuals and companies. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barot said the government had banned Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, four leaders of settler organizations and 21 violent settlers from entering France.
Britain said its package is aimed at cutting off funding flows that it says have allowed extremist settler groups to operate with impunity in the West Bank. It also includes a construction company whose resources, according to London, were used to destroy Palestinian property.
Canada’s sanctions include a different manufacturing company and its owners and prohibit Canadians from doing business with all those listed.
The joint statement warned that further action would be taken if the Israeli government did not take “urgent measures to address the situation on the ground”. One of the concerns concerns Israel’s plan to build a settlement east of Jerusalem, known as the E1 project, which will effectively bisect the West Bank and isolate it from East Jerusalem, fragmenting the territories the Palestinians claim for an independent state.
France is set to host a June 12 meeting in Paris that will bring together Israeli and Palestinian civil society organizations and about a dozen foreign ministers.
The meeting will mark a year since the adoption of the New York Declaration, a non-binding resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly that laid out a road map to a Palestinian state, and led 11 countries, including Australia, Britain, Canada and France, to recognize a Palestinian state in September.
