“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,” said the joint statement from the British, Australian, Canadian, French and Norwegian foreign ministers. “In some cases, settler violence takes place under the protection of Israel’s security forces”
“We continue to urge the Government of Israel to take action to ensure meaningful accountability for violence in the West Bank,” they added.
The Foreign Office said the UK was imposing sanctions on six entities and one individual accused of being “involved in financing, enabling and carrying out settler violence in the occupied West Bank”.
They would face asset freezes, as well as travel bans and director disqualifications where appropriate, it added.
The entities included an association that provided financial support to settler farms and outposts, and a construction company whose resources had been used to destroy Palestinian land and property, the Foreign Office said.
It also announced that, for the first time, the UK’s official guidance would “explicitly advise businesses against economic and financial activity in illegal settlements”.
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told the House of Commons: “We believe that violent settler groups should not be profiting from the land that they have seized from Palestinians.”
She added that the Israeli government had “condemned some settler violence, but that rings hollow when there is scant accountability”.
France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said it had banned Bezalel Smotrich from entering the country because he “actively promotes the annexation of the West Bank, which he openly claims, the creation of new settlements in the West Bank, the re-colonisation of Gaza, the economic collapse of the Palestinian Authority and its harmful consequences for the Palestinian population”.
Four leaders of settler organisations and 21 “violent settlers” had also been barred, he added.
Norway said it was barring “20 violent settlers” from the country, while Australia published co-ordinated sanctions alongside New Zealand last week.
Last June, the UK, Australia, Canada and Norway sanctioned Smotrich and far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over what they said were “repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities”.
Israel’s foreign ministry condemned the latest sanctions.
“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,” it said in a statement.
The ministry said such “anti-Israeli policies” only served to fuel the antisemitism that was “rampant” in the countries involved.
The Palestinian foreign ministry welcomed the joint statement by the UK and its allies, which it said rejected “the occupation’s measures to annex the West Bank”.
