UK members of the Global Sanctions Coalition note the recent announcement of sanctions by the UK government against some individuals and entities responsible for violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The Coalition’s UK supporters – the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), and War on Want – have long been calling for stronger measures to address the construction and expansion of Israel’s illegal settlements and rampant state-led settler violence. The internationally coordinated nature of these sanctions represents an important step towards accountability but the very limited scale of the sanctions is a matter of huge concern
The measures, which the UK announced on 9 June alongside Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand and Norway, are coordinated sanctions targeting six entities and one individual involved in financing, enabling and profiting from settler violence.
While these measures recognise that settler violence does not occur in isolation but is enabled by broader networks of support and financing, considerable further action is needed to address those responsible for driving the forced displacement of Palestinians from their own homes and lands, the construction, sustaining and expansion of of illegal settlements across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Órlaith Roe, ICJP’s Public Affairs and Communications Officer, said:
“While this is a welcome step from the UK government, it falls woefully short of what is needed to confront Israel’s illegal settler economy. The UK must urgently align itself with its own longstanding position – that Israeli settlements in the oPt are illegal and a flagrant violation of international law.
There is absolutely no time to waste in stopping Israel’s advancing settlement plans like E1. Tenders are live, construction is planned, and the change on the ground will be irreversible. The UK has to step up now.”
Sam Perlo-Freedman, Research Co-ordinator at Campaign Against Arms Trade, said:
“Whilst any and all additional sanctions on those driving settler violence and the settler economy are welcome, much more is now needed for the UK to meet its international obligations and hold those responsible for violence and expansionism accountable. Such steps must be accompanied by an end to the ongoing assistance provided to Israel by the United Kingdom in the form of arms sales and military support.
The UK Government must now urgently commit to a total ban on the import of goods produced in Israeli settlements, and to an immediate two-way arms embargo to end all arms sales to and purchases from Israel.”
Neil Sammonds, Senior Campaigner on Palestine at War on Want, said:
“It is abundantly clear that settler violence is encouraged by Israel’s government ministers, ministries and institutions, armed forces and judiciary. Sanctioning a handful of private entities is a fig-leaf for UK government inertia over soaring state-driven violence that continues to fuel Israel’s brutal settler-colonialism and apartheid. Sanctioning entities responsible for rampant settler violence is a key mechanism for deterring and holding to account those responsible for multiple war crimes by Israel against the Palestinian people. But the scale of the latest measures is pitiful”
