The UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway said Tuesday that they would freeze assets and bar the entry of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for having “incited extremist violence” against Palestinians in the West Bank.
“Settler violence is incited by extremist rhetoric which calls for Palestinians to be driven from their homes, encourages violence and human rights abuses and fundamentally rejects the two-state solution,” read the statement from the five countries’ foreign ministries.
Over the past two years, Palestinian villages in the West Bank have been targeted in an increasing number of attacks by extremist Israeli settlers. The attacks go unpunished in the vast majority of cases.
The announcement of the sanctions, which did not provide specific instances of Ben Gvir or Smotrich — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyah’s senior far-right coalition partners — inciting settler violence, called on Israel “to take meaningful action to end extremist, violent and expansionist rhetoric.”
The five countries stressed their support for Israel’s security, adding: “We will strive to achieve an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the immediate release of the remaining hostages by Hamas, which can have no future role in the governance of Gaza, a surge in aid and a path to a two-state solution.”
The sanctions came after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Thursday that his government was weighing “further concrete actions” against Israel amid its renewed Gaza offensive, following sanctions on West Bank settlers and the suspension of trade talks with Jerusalem last month. Other Western countries, including some of those that announced the new sanctions Tuesday, have made similar threats.
Ben Gvir and Smotrich slammed the sanctions against them, as did Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and MK Benny Gantz, head of the opposition National Unity party.
“We survived Pharaoh, we’ll survive Keir Starmer, too,” Ben Gvir wrote on X, paraphrasing a 1990 hit by Israeli singer-songwriter Meir Ariel.
Ben Gvir likened UK sanctions to Britain’s 1939 White Paper that restricted Jewish emigration to Mandatory Palestine.
“I’ll keep working for Israel and continue to work for Israel and the people of Israel without fear or intimidation,” he said.
Smotrich also assailed UK sanctions as “a White Paper,” and vowed to expand Israeli settlements.
The minister said he learned during a dedication ceremony for a new West Bank settlement that “Britain decided to sanction me because I’ve thwarted the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
“The timing couldn’t be better,” he said. “Britain has already tried once to prevent us from settling the cradle of our homeland and we won’t let it do that again. We are determined to keep building.”
Sa’ar, at a joint press conference in Jerusalem with his Zambian counterpart, Mulambo Haimbe, said “It is outrageous that elected representatives and members of the government are subjected to these kinds of measures.”
“We will hold a special government meeting early next week to decide on our response to this unacceptable decision,” added Sa’ar, saying he had discussed the matter with Netanyahu.
Gantz called on the British government “to stop this move, which will fuel global terrorism.”
“I deeply disagree with ministers Smotrich and Ben Gvir, but the imposition of sanctions on ministers in the Israeli government by the British government is a profound moral failure and a bad message to the entire world,” wrote Gantz on X.
“The State of Israel is fighting enemies who have proven that they intend to destroy it. The pressure and sanctions should be directed at Iran, Hamas and the Houthis,” he added.
Ben Gvir responded: “Thank you very much, Benny!”
The announcement of sanctions against Ben Gvir and Smotrich cited a UN report released last month that counted 1,900 settler attacks on Palestinian villages in the West Bank since January 2024.
Attacks spiked following the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza. Hebrew media reported a month into the war that Ben Gvir had dismissed Shin Bet warnings about deadly settler attacks.
Earlier that year, Smotrich caused controversy by saying Israel should “wipe out Huwara,” a West Bank Palestinian village where hundreds of settlers carried out a deadly rampage after two Israeli brothers were shot dead there. Smotrich later apologized for the comment.