British foreign secretary: UK has no intention of working with Ben Gvir
Responding to petition from lawmakers affiliated with Council for Arab-British Understanding, James Cleverly says ‘no current plans’ to engage with far-right minister
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has said that the British government has no intention of working with far-right minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
“The UK government has not engaged Itamar Ben-Gvir in his role as Minister of National Security, and we have no current plans to do so,” Cleverly wrote in a letter to the Council for Arab-British Understanding published on Friday.
Cleverly was responding to a letter sent in December by several UK lawmakers affiliated with the council expressing concern with the then-incoming government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The letter raised concerns about expected plans by the government to annex parts of the West Bank or expand settlements. It also singled out two far-right politicians who were given senior ministerial roles — Ben Gvir and Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister.
“We are writing to you to express our grave concern about the annexationist policies of the incoming Government of Israel, building on the policies of its predecessors which have produced a one state reality: effectively, Israel controls the lives of Palestinians throughout the occupied Palestinian territory,” the letter said.
“Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu has given the post of National Security Minister to Jewish supremacist Itamar Ben Gvir, and promised the Finance Ministry to Jewish supremacist Bezalel Smotrich.”
Cleverly’s response, which was received on February 14th and published by the Council for Arab-British Understanding, mentioned Ben Gvir, who heads the Kahanist Otzma Yehudit party, but made no mention of Smotrich.
“We call on all Israeli parties to refrain from inflammatory language and demonstrate tolerance and respect for minority groups,” Cleverly wrote.
He also reiterated the UK’s position that all settlements are “illegal under international law, present an obstacle to peace and threaten the physical viability of a Two-State solution.”
However, Cleverly also said that the UK was looking forward to working with Netanyahu’s new government to “strengthen our excellent bilateral ties.”
He also rejected the assertion of the letter that the situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories could be termed “apartheid.”
Cleverly’s boycott of Ben Gvir goes a step further than the US, which said it would not avoid the controversial minister, but would hold Netanyahu responsible for the actions of his government
“There’s no boycott. I don’t do boycotts… We are going to work with the Israeli government. It is a democratically elected government,” US Ambassador Tom Nides said in January after being prompted on the matter during an interview with the Kan public broadcaster. “We’ll work with everyone. But in principle, [who] I’ll be working with is the prime minister.”
The preference to work with Netanyahu is one that has been vocalized by Biden officials in recent weeks and it is part of what they say is a new approach that aims to hold the longtime premier accountable for the policies of some of his far-right coalition partners, such as Ben Gvir — a self-described disciple of the late racist rabbi Meir Kahane — and Smotrich.
Behind closed doors, though, Nides has told colleagues that the US is not planning to meet with Ben Gvir, two sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel.
In January, a delegation of visiting US senators asked not to meet with Smotrich, Ben Gvir or any other members of their hardline factions.
