Starmer says UK weighing sanctions on Ben Gvir and Smotrich
British PM says move being considered in light of the ‘obviously abhorrent comments’ by the far-right ministers, who fire back by saying ‘the days of the mandate are over’
Britain is considering sanctioning Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir over comments they made about civilians in Gaza and West Bank settlers, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday.
Previous foreign secretary David Cameron had planned to sanction Smotrich and Ben Gvir before his then-governing Conservative Party lost an election in July, and Starmer told parliament he too was looking at the option.
Starmer was responding to a question about Smotrich’s comments that starving civilians in Gaza might be justified and Ben Gvir’s remarks that perpetrators of settler violence in the West Bank were heroes.
“We are looking at that because they’re obviously abhorrent comments,” the prime minister said.
In defiant statements, Smotrich and Ben Gvir each said the threat of sanctions would not lead to a change in their positions.
“The British need to know the days of their mandate are over,” Ben Gvir said. “In any case, they do not scare me, and I will continue to only act according to the important national interests of the State of Israel and the sake of the country’s residents, our soldiers, our policeman, and our prison guards.”
He also expressed his contempt for the 1939 White Paper, a British policy paper that limited Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine.
Smotrich similarly stressed that the British mandate and the White Paper are no longer relevant, and yet, he wrote, “the one-sidedness and hypocrisy remained the same one-sidedness and hypocrisy.”
Starmer was speaking ahead of an urgent meeting at the United Nations Security Council to discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war that was called by Britain, France and Algeria.
His Labour government has taken a slightly tougher line on Israel since it was elected, although it supports Israel’s right to defend itself.
It has limited some arms export licenses to Israel, saying there was a risk that certain equipment might be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law. The move was slammed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said Starmer’s “misguided” government was “sending a horrible message” to Hamas.
On Tuesday, Britain also announced new sanctions on Israeli settler organizations it said had sponsored violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank.
That announcement came after former British foreign secretary David Cameron told the BBC that the previous Conservative government was “working up” sanctions against Smotrich and Ben Gvir before July’s general elections.
The US administration previously considered sanctioning the pair as well but later shelved the plan, though an administration official told The Times of Israel last month that there will likely be another push to convince President Joe Biden to sanction the far-right ministers.
