Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Tuesday after five Western governments imposed sanctions on them for “extremist rhetoric.”
The countries sanctioning the two Israeli cabinet members include Canada, the United Kingdom, Norway, New Zealand, and Australia. They released a joint statement claiming the officials had “incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights” in Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank.
“These sanctions do not advance U.S.-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire, bring all hostages home, and end the war,” Rubio said in a statement. “We reject any notion of equivalence: Hamas is a terrorist organization that committed unspeakable atrocities, continues to hold innocent civilians hostage, and prevents the people of Gaza from living in peace.”
Rubio added that the United States “urges the reversal of the sanctions” and “stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel.”
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The sanctions reportedly include travel bans and asset freezes, though the ministers are not known to have any assets in those countries.
In the five countries’ statement, they claim that the situation in Judea and Samaria cannot be viewed separately from “the catastrophe” in Gaza. They added that they are “appalled by the immense suffering of civilians, including the denial of essential aid” and that they oppose “unlawful transfer of Palestinians from Gaza or within the West Bank” or any reduction of the territory of the Gaza Strip.
The countries accuse Ben-Gvir and Smotrich of “extremist rhetoric” including allegedly advocating for the “forced displacement of Palestinians and the creation of new Israeli settlements.”
Both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are the Israeli boogeymen to the Israeli Left and Western media due to their extremely nationalistic and hawkish right-wing views, including for the expansion of settlements in Judea and Samaria and support for relocating Gazans from the Gaza Strip.
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Smotrich responded in a speech on Tuesday while he was inaugurating the new Israeli settlement “Mitzpe Ziv” in the Hebron Hills.
“I heard that Britain had decided to impose sanctions on me for obstructing the establishment of the Palestinian state,” he said. “The timing couldn’t be better.”
He added that Britain has already once attempted to prevent Jews from “settling in the cradle of our homeland” and that “we are determined to continue building.”
In the five countries’ statement, they repeatedly mention the two-state solution, a plan for both an Israeli and Palestinian state, claiming that it is “extremist rhetoric” to reject such a plan.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Huckabee said that the United States no longer backs the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria, in an interview with Bloomberg published Tuesday.
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Ben-Gvir also responded to the sanctions on Tuesday, claiming that these countries are attacking Israel while they have their own internal issues to worry about.
“While the European colonial countries fantasize that we Jews are still their subjects, the streets of their famous cities are being taken over by radical Islam,” he wrote. “But their campaign of appeasement for the Hamas terrorists will not save them. When they finally wake up, it will be too late!”
Moments after being protested by a bottle-throwing crowd near Yale University, Itamar Ben-Gvir sat down with me to discuss the stark contrast between his VIP treatment at Mar-a-Lago and the hostile reception from anti-Israel students.
Here’s what he said: pic.twitter.com/KoNVqyP66W
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) April 25, 2025
In April, protesters near Yale University hurled bottles at Ben-Gvir during his trip to the United States, just a day after he was welcomed by applause from a crowd filled with Trump allies and members of Congress at Mar-a-Lago. He told The Daily Wire that the reception likely wouldn’t have happened if President Donald Trump had lost because he was detested by the Biden administration.
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“It would have been likely that they would not admit me and here I am today, from a situation where I was a persona-non-grata, to a situation where I am being loved,” he said. “I enter their room and there is an applause for what I say, on our ideas, on our world view, on the fact that I want a big and strong state of Israel.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said that the government will call a special meeting next week to determine how to respond to the “outrageous, unacceptable decision” by the five Western governments, Jewish News Syndicate reported.
“It is outrageous that elected representatives and members of the government are subjected to these kinds of measures,” Sa’ar stated.