Afrasianet - The imposition of sanctions by European countries on Israeli settlers and ministers does not mean a move by these countries to punish Israel, as much as it is a continuation of the series of cover-ups behind these ineffective measures to continue supporting and funding their government.
The governments of France, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway announced on Tuesday sanctions including a ban on settlers and settlement entities, as well as on Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
They attributed the new sanctions to what they described as "appalling violence" against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank , while Israel declared its categorical rejection of what it called "disgraceful measures."
While these sanctions show that these countries are investigating settler violence, after the UN report that clearly affirmed the government's protection for these violations, they also "reveal the insistence of these countries to cover up behind the punishment of some people to continue supporting and supplying Israel with weapons," says former British MP Claudia Webb.
Governments that are not serious
Western countries, including Britain, as Webb said on the "Beyond the News" program, "do not ignore these violations, but they do not punish Israel as a state, and therefore continue to collud with it, and continue to arm it in clear violation of its duties."
If these countries truly want to end these abuses aimed at ending the Palestinian presence in the West Bank and erasing any hope of building an independent Palestinian state, Webb put it, "they should stop supporting and funding Israel, stop supplying it with weapons, and impose clear sanctions on it, not just a few settler organizations."
These same countries, and the former British MP, "confirm in their reports that Israel's persistence in its behavior is the cause of its impunity, ignoring that it is the one who helps it to achieve this impunity."
The proof of this is that only last February, Benjamin Netanyahu's government passed the construction of 22 new outposts, without these Western countries taking a position on this decision, "even though 80% of Britons, for example, say that they do not support their government's relationship with Israel, and refuse to continue arming it," and therefore "these policies must continue to be rejected," according to Webb.
Non-Effective
The Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, does not disagree with the previous opinion, but believes that the Palestinian communities in these countries should cooperate with pro-Palestine organizations to put more pressure on these governments.
Europe has supplied Israel with 19 percent of the weapons it used in its war on the Gaza Strip, Barghouti says, and these sanctions "reflect the extreme embarrassment it finds towards its people, who are increasingly rejecting Israel, even though they will not affect the construction of government-funded settlements protected by the occupation army."
The same is true for the Palestinian Authority, which Barghouti believes should put more pressure on Europe to punish Israel and boycott it commercially and militarily, rather than punish the settlements.
The PA should also ask these countries that declare their support for the two-state solution what their position is on Israel, which the spokesman said is "slaughtering this solution every day."
Dr. Muhannad Mustafa, an expert on Israeli affairs, believes that the impact of these sanctions "does not go beyond harming the victim narrative adopted by Israel, but it will not affect its policies that are mainly directed at the United States."
Even imposing sanctions on Israeli ministers "does not mean punishing the government that approves and finances the construction of settlements, not the minister himself," Mustafa said.
It is true that Tel Aviv does not ignore these sanctions out of diplomacy, says Mustafa, "but at the same time it sends a quarter of its exports to Europe, which in turn supplies it with many weapons."
In summary, in the spokesman's opinion, Israel "relies only on the United States in its current colonial project, because the current West Bank settlements are funded by the Israeli government and right-wing American parties, and some of the agricultural projects for the settlements are directly funded by the United States."
Western sanctions and Israeli attack
Last month, Paris banned National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir from entering its territory after he published a video showing the abuse of detained activists from the "Steadfastness Flotilla" seeking to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are the cornerstone of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide and war crimes against Palestinians.
Ireland also recently banned the ministers and Britain barred them in June last year, before other countries, including Spain and Slovenia, followed suit.
In its new move, Britain announced on Tuesday that it would impose a sanctions package on six entities and one individual involved in financing, enabling and carrying out settler violence in the West Bank.
The British government has threatened to take further action unless the situation improves, following a UN investigation that found that Israeli authorities were directly involved in settler attacks that led to the death, injury and displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank, while Israeli security forces provided protection to settlers.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry rejected the measures, which it described as "disgraceful," accusing these countries of "a catastrophic failure to combat rampant anti-Semitism in their countries."
Not only that, Israel considered these countries to "seek to impose a political position on the right of Jews to live in the Land of Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, under the guise of fighting violence."
Source: Al Jazeera
