Israel rejects foreign governments’ ‘disgraceful’ measures against settler violence, Smotrich

Israel “firmly rejects” punitive measures taken by foreign governments today against West Bank settler violence, settlement expansion and far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, claiming that the steps fuel antisemitism.

“Israel firmly rejects the disgraceful measures adopted by foreign governments against Israeli citizens, entities, and a government minister,” the Foreign Ministry says in a statement, claiming that the countries’ actions are an “attempt to impose a political stance regarding the right of Jews to settle in the Land of Israel and concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – camouflaged as measures against violence.”

The United Kingdom and the foreign ministers of Canada, France, and Norway announced this afternoon that they are taking coordinated action with sanctions in response to “record settlement expansion and rising settler violence in West Bank.”

Later, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot announced that Paris had barred Smotrich, four leaders of settler organizations, and 21 “violent settlers.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry also condemns what it calls the “resounding failure” of these governments “to combat the antisemitism that is rampant in their own countries,” saying “anti-Israeli policies of the kind adopted today only serve to fuel that antisemitism.”

“Astonishingly, these governments have also failed to impose sanctions or take action against the phenomena that truly drive violence – the Palestinian Authority’s salaries for terrorists,” the ministry further says, referring to a controversial PA policy dubbed “pay-for-slay” by critics, which Ramallah has claimed to reverse, though Israel says it has continued.