Australian PM dismisses ‘predictable’ Israeli and US criticism of sanctions on Ben Gvir, Smotrich

SYDNEY — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says condemnation by the US and Israel of sanctions imposed on two far-right Israeli cabinet ministers is “predictable,” and that the two men have impeded a two-state solution.

“The Israeli Government does need to uphold its obligations under international law and some of the expansionist rhetoric that we’ve seen as well is clearly in contradiction of that from these hard-line right wing members of the Netanyahu government,” Albanese says on Wednesday in an interview with ABC Radio Sydney.

Comments by the two men “have aided what is a serious impediment to a two-state solution,” he adds.

The sanctions freeze the assets and impose travel bans on National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, both West Bank settlers, Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong says.

“We, along with those other countries and the broader international community, believe we can only see peace in the Middle East when we deal with two states and when both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security,” she says in a television interview with Seven.

Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, writes on X that the sanctions are “deeply concerning and entirely unacceptable.”