The UK imposed sanctions on Tuesday on two illegal settlement outposts and three Israeli settlers, including veteran settler leader Daniella Weiss and her organization Nachala, a company involved in the construction of illegal settlement outposts.
The measures, including asset freezes, financial restrictions and travel bans, were announced on the same day that the UK suspended trade talks with Israel, citing the renewed military campaign in Gaza and Israel’s policy on aid restrictions into the territory.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the sanctions were enacted to “hold extremist settlers to account,” adding that the Israeli government’s “consistent failure” to act against such people was endangering the prospects of a two-state solution.
“I have seen for myself the consequences of settler violence. The fear of its victims. The impunity of its perpetrators,” said Lammy in announcing the sanctions.
“The sanctioning of Daniella Weiss and others today demonstrates our determination to hold extremist settlers to account as Palestinian communities suffer violence and intimidation at the hands of extremist settlers,” he said.
Harel Libi, a resident of the illegal settlement outpost of Adei Ad, was also sanctioned, as was Zohar Sabah, the founder of an illegal farming outpost.
The UK Foreign Office accused all three individuals of being involved in “threatening and perpetuating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinian individuals.”
Sabah was indicted in September last year for his role in assaulting Palestinians in the hamlet of Mu’arrajat East in the southern Jordan valley, near an illegal farming outpost he established east of the Mevo’ot Yeriho settlement.
The Libi Construction and Infrastructure company owned by Libi was also sanctioned, with the Foreign Office stating that it has provided “logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts resulting in the forced displacement of Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
According to the Kerem Navot organization, which tracks settlement activity, Libi Construction has been involved in widespread illegal construction in different areas of the West Bank, including efforts to establish illegal outposts and build infrastructure for them.
The illegal farming outpost of Coco’s Farm was also hit with sanctions due to what the Foreign Office said was its support for activity that “amounts to a serious abuse of the right of individuals not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
Coco’s Farm was established in the Jordan Valley region by Libi, whose nickname is reportedly Coco.
The Jordan Valley Activists organization has accused Libi and his employees of harassing local Palestinian herders and their livestock, saying the illegal outpost has prevented the herders from grazing their sheep in the area.
The sanctions also targeted Neriyah’s Farm, another illegal farming outpost in the region east of Ramallah established by Neriyah Ben Pazi.
Ben Pazi has established several illegal farming outposts, and has received government funding from the Agriculture Ministry for raising sheep in them.
In January last year, the IDF issued a restraining order banning Ben Pazi from the West Bank for three months, excluding the city of Ariel, due to his hostile actions against local Palestinians.
Ben Pazi was subjected to US sanctions under the Biden administration, although those have since been lifted by the Trump administration.
The Foreign Office said it targeted Nachala, Weiss’s organization, due to what it said was its role in “facilitating, inciting, promoting and providing logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts and forced displacement of Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
Nachala has been active in creating illegal settlement outposts, most notably the Evyatar outpost, which was legalized by the current government in June last year.
The organization has also advocated for the forced resettlement of the Palestinian population of Gaza and the establishment of Jewish settlements in the territory, as has Weiss herself.
In February 2024, activists associated with Nachala broke through an Israeli military checkpoint and crossed into Gazan territory in an attempt to establish such settlements before being caught and removed by the IDF.
Nachala said in response that “the antisemitic attack by Britain raises the difficult images that resulted from the decrees of the White Paper against settlement and against [Jewish] immigration to the Land of Israel,” in reference to a document issued by the British government in 1939 that severely limited Jewish immigration to Mandate Palestine.
“We call for occupation, emigration and for settlements in Gaza today,” added Nachala.