UK imposes sanctions for alleged violence against Palestinians on Lehava and Hilltop Youth, 4 settler leaders

The UK announces new sanctions on extremist groups and individuals accused of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron announces the sanctions package, which follows a previous round of sanctions in February on four Israelis believed to have carried out violent attacks on Palestinians.

“Extremist settlers are undermining security and stability and threatening prospects for peace,” Cameron says in a statement.

“This latest package of sanctions targets two groups leading these attacks, and four individuals who are directly responsible for egregious violence against Palestinian civilians,” he adds.

The statement names the groups as Hilltop Youth, which it calls “a hardline nationalist Israeli youth group which establishes illegal settler outposts across the West Bank” and Lehava, which it says is being sanctioned for “facilitating, inciting, and promoting violence against Arab and Palestinian communities.”

Extremist Lehava head Bentzi Gopstein (with microphone) and other far-right activists demonstrate against the annual Pride Parade in Jerusalem, on June 1, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Lehava, a far-right Jewish supremacist group, has also been sanctioned by the EU, and its leader Benzi Gopstein, a former Knesset candidate for Itamar Ben Gvir’s Oztmah Yehudit party, was sanctioned by the US last month.

The statement lists the individuals targeted as prominent far-right activist Noam Federman, whose son Ely has already been sanctioned by the UK, Neria Ben Pazi and Elisha Yered who have already been sanctioned by the US and Eden Levi.

The new measures “impose financial restrictions on the entities and individuals, and travel restrictions on the individuals,” the statement adds.