UK, allies impose sanctions over Israeli settler violence in West Bank

LONDON: Britain, Canada, France and Norway announced coordinated sanctions on Tuesday against Israeli networks accused of financing, facilitating and carrying out violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as international pressure mounted over rising attacks by settlers on Palestinians.

The move was aligned with sanctions announced last week by Australia and New Zealand, in a joint statement by the foreign ministers of the four countries and Australia. The statement said the measures were intended to "hold extremist settlers accountable for the horrific levels of settler violence against Palestinian civilians". It added: "We continue to urge the government of Israel to take action to ensure meaningful accountability for violence in the (occupied) West Bank".

The coordinated action reflects growing anger in many Western countries towards the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which has expanded settlements. The joint statement also warned that further measures could follow if the Israeli government did not take urgent steps to address the situation.

Different sanctions announced

The sanctions announced on Tuesday did not target an identical list of individuals and entities. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said France had barred Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, four leaders of settler organisations and 21 violent settlers from entering the country.

Britain said its package was aimed at interrupting financial flows that it said had enabled extremist settler groups to operate with impunity in the occupied West Bank. The British measures also covered a construction company whose resources, it said, had been used in the destruction of Palestinian property.

Canada, for its part, imposed sanctions on a different construction firm and its owners, and barred Canadians from engaging in dealings with all designated persons and entities.

One of the concerns highlighted is Israel’s plan to build a settlement east of Jerusalem known as the E1 project. The project would divide the West Bank and separate it from East Jerusalem, fragmenting land Palestinians seek for an independent state.

UN inquiry findings

Also on Tuesday, a United Nations inquiry said Israeli forces protect settlers during attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. The Commission of Inquiry said Israeli authorities were directly involved in settler assaults that had killed, wounded and displaced Palestinians, and that state institutions had enabled such attacks through financial and military backing in a climate of impunity fostered by judicial and law-enforcement bodies.

The inquiry said settler attacks on Palestinian villages and farmland had increased by 130 per cent since 2023, including incidents involving groups of masked attackers. Israeli forces regularly accompanied settlers and acted as protection during the violence.

The report found that the growing participation of Israeli forces in settler attacks amounted to a de facto collapse of the distinction between settlers and soldiers. Such violence had been used to advance state policy, including unlawful occupation, the displacement of Palestinians and the annexation of Palestinian territory.

The commission documented assaults, abductions and abuse of Palestinian children by settlers. In one case, on April 19 last year, a 12-year-old girl and her three-year-old brother were abducted at knifepoint, taken to an olive grove and tied to a tree with plastic restraints until their family intervened. Settlers had committed or threatened sexual violence to spread fear and had harassed Palestinian women.

S. Muralidhar, head of the commission and a former senior judge from India, said: "The relentless, daily assaults by Israeli settlers against Palestinians are intolerable and must end".

Wassel Abu Yousef, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, said the report "reflects the extent of violence perpetrated by settlers against our people".

Israeli response

Israel’s foreign ministry rejected the sanctions and said the governments imposing them had failed to control antisemitism and were fuelling it through such measures. Israel’s government has acknowledged that settler violence occurs and has at times condemned it, while opposing foreign sanctions on Israelis and entities linked to the occupied West Bank, where it says Jews have a right to live.

The Israeli army said it condemns "any form of violence that undermines security" and said any alleged misconduct by Israeli soldiers was thoroughly reviewed. Israeli and Palestinian rights groups say such investigations rarely result in punishment.

Hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers live among millions of Palestinians on land captured by Israel in the 1967 war. Most countries consider the settlements illegal under international law, a position affirmed in a 2024 ruling by the UN’s top court.

The UN commission had previously reported that Israel committed genocide during its military offensive in Gaza and that senior Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, had incited those acts.