Should the international community sanction Israel over settler violence in West Bank?

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The problem of Israeli terrorism is getting worse and worse. Just over the past few weeks amongst other things Israeli terrorists have killed multiple people, commited sexual assault, beaten and threatened to rape young Palestinian girls, continually attacked the residents and property of the only remaining fully Christian town in the West Bank, stolen 100s of sheep from the Bedouin community, beaten activists who are there to provide a protective presence to Palestinians, set fire to property.

Palestinians don't have the right to defend themselves from this violent, rapidly escalating Israeli terrorism. They can't arrest and detain the Israeli terrorists. They are sitting ducks with no means of protecting themselves from beatings and sexual violence. Is it time that the international community steps in and sanctions Israel until they can control their obvious terrorism problem? What else can be done to try and protect innocent people from this escalating Israeli violence?

Do you think Israel should not be sanctioned for the ethnic cleansing and displacement they are engaging in?

Do you think the sanctions will solve the complex problems in the Middle East?

Now to be fair I asked you first but to answer your question, not by themselves but it is a start . Hopefully by allowing Israel to see their policies are isolating themselves from some major economies.

Now do you think Israel deserve no sanctions at all for the state sponsored terrorism they have engaged in in the West Bank?

I’m not saying what has happened in the West Bank should just be ignored, or that people responsible shouldn’t face consequences. I just don’t think broad sanctions are necessarily the answer.

My concern is that sanctions can become more symbolic than effective, while damaging relationships that the UK still needs for its own security. Israel is an important intelligence and security partner, particularly when it comes to the threat from Iran and Iranian-linked networks operating in or targeting the UK. We shouldn’t undermine that cooperation unless there’s a clear and realistic benefit from doing so.

If the objective is to stop settler violence or unlawful activity in the West Bank, I’d much rather see targeted sanctions against specific individuals, organisations or people directly responsible, alongside diplomatic pressure, rather than measures that unnecessarily damage the wider UK-Israel relationship.

I also think we have to distinguish between criticising the Israeli government and treating Israel as a whole as the enemy. You can condemn actions in the West Bank while still recognising that maintaining a functioning relationship with Israel is in Britain’s national interest.

Thank you for your reply.
I think though the time for diplomacy is gone. The strong rhetoric and policies coming from the Israeli government is one of expansion. Nothing has stopped them for the many years this has occurred before the current ramping up. We know the Israeli government are above international law and see themselves thus.
Perhaps economic sanctions might make them change their mind and also the minds of the electorate who head to the polls next month.

@Martymcfly24 Forgive me if this comes across as rude but I think it is grossly naïve to assume that sanctions, will suddenly change the Israeli government’s position. Given the extent to which previous international pressure has failed to alter policy, I’m not convinced economic measures would be the decisive factor people hope they will be.

No you are not being rude at all. And you may be correct . I would be perhaps as you say naively optimistic that the cumulative effort of numerous attempts at sanctions would change some minds about voting the more extreme elements that are driving these policies.
And without the USA sanctions are minimal but at least it's something.

Sorry Marty but I'm going to jump in here. The point is the whole world has let Israel get away with its treatment of the Palestinians and everyone has been too scared to act. When I first heard this story I thought it was just more performative bollocks but now I'm thinking the UK may have started an unstoppable ball rolling to actually result in justice for the Palestinians. If this is true, I have never been more proud of the UK.

Im delighted with the UK too . I never thought that they wouldn't and Milibands speech today was hard-hitting. (I'm Irish though and we have been calling for this bill for a long time)

I would be so happy to think this was the start of something. Israel sees itself as above the law and that is why they are so pissed off that anyone is standing up to them.

I agree wholeheartedly. This might finally be the moment the dam has burst.

Really genuinely hope so.

I reckon this is going to bite us on the arse big time.

Interested to see how it pans out.

Have you suddenly developed some fake empathy for the Palestinian people? Funny how it happened right after the UK government's announcement of extremely minor sanctions against a small number of the Israeli terrorists.

They operate under orders administered by a government that is openly intent on ethnic cleansing.

While there are whistleblowers and dissenters, the majority of the army are following those orders with gusto and in some cases glee. Reports of indiscriminate killing of civilians, the deliberate targeting of children, sniping at Palestinians desperate for food, torture of prisoners, kidnapping and abuse are widespread and disgraceful. This should never be normalised as part of ‘war’.

They are an ‘arm’ of the government, an extension of the state, they carry out acts in accordance with the policies, yet are not held to account for committing war crimes - so of course they will be perceived as barbaric and immoral too.

Think this is what you are alluding to and it’s one of too many reports that highlights the impunity of the army - retrospective incrimination:
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-gaza-civilians-strikes-terrorists-b3039052.html

Excellent speech by Miliband yesterdsy. Finally some sincerity, passion, moral clarity and backbone. Other European countries are following.

Finally some hope.

The problem is that you are effectively sanctioning Israel itself given goods are only levelled by their country of origin. You are effectively starting a campaign against Israel as whole economically with no aim. What does the international community think will happen. Israeli attitudes will harden and they will possibly increase not decrease the rate of settler expansion and there will be no way for the UK to diplomatically influence Israel. All that will happen is that the Islamo left in the UK will see this as victory and a justification for their anti Semitic campaigns over the last few years.

Only labelled by their country of origin on the consumer side.

For companies that purchase products from Israel, there will need to be a way (if the trade bans get imposed and they aren't happening for months) for them to know if they are buying from the West Bank settlements or not.

While Miliband has introduced an import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories, he is against boycotts of Israel.

He said: “The sanctions will target illegal settlements and settlement expansion, not Israel. We will continue to support important and valued trade with green line Israel precisely because we support the two-state solution, including security and prosperity for Israel.

“For this reason, I wholeheartedly oppose the boycott, divestment, sanctions, or BDS, campaign.”

Mr Miliband said his trade bans would be in place within the next six to nine months.

I agree that these limited sanctions will not change the Israeli government's position.

What is far more likely to change the government's position is a new, more moderate government being voted in next month.

@mids2019 ,

If you take that argument to its logical conclusion, you should never sanction any country.

I think that many Israelis will care deeply that their country is rapidly becoming an international pariah. Definitely not Ben G’vir and Smotrich, who don’t care what the Goyim/philistines think, and maybe not Netanyahu, but plenty of others within Israel take pride in its place in the World.

Not sure these sanctions alone will do much, but if they get traction, they could well influence the election in Israel.

If you agree that the recent settler action, the E1 settlement plan and what Israel are currently doing in Gaza (compressing the Palestinians into a smaller and smaller area) amount to expansionism and ethnic cleansing, then what actions do you believe to be appropriate?

The sanctioning of a whole country would be more powerful, but that isn't what Miliband is proposing to happen in a few months time.

If the limited sanctions influence the election in Israel towards a more moderate government, that's a good thing.

You can condemn actions in the West Bank while still recognising that maintaining a functioning relationship with Israel is in Britain’s national interest.

Difficult when Netanyahu doesn't seem to care about maintaining functioning relationships with other countries.

‘You can condemn actions in the West Bank while still recognising that maintaining a functioning relationship with Israel is in Britain’s national interest.’

That is a pretty tricky trade off. Of course, with certain relationships, we need to put basic self interest ahead of ethics. And I think a lot of countries, including the uk, are doing that with Trump at the moment.

However, the Middle East is more complex. Our total trade with Isreal is only worth $6bio and we do more than this with Saudi, let alone the whole rest of the Middle East. We don’t need Israel as a trading partner, though obviously we’d like that trade to persist.

Israel is, however, historically an ally. But Netanyahu has been expansionist and is very aggressive and borderline racist; he also employs actual racists in his cabinet who have outright called for ethnic cleansing..

The UK is right, with very small limited sanctions, to make clear this isn’t acceptable to us. The Israelis are reacting proportionately with a lot of noise but little real tit-for-tat sanctions on us. That seems well judged to me from Milliband.

I think you’re conflating “Israel isn’t economically indispensable” with “the relationship isn’t in Britain’s national interest”. I wasn’t arguing that Britain needs Israel for trade. The value of the relationship is much broader than the $6bn in bilateral trade — intelligence, defence and security cooperation, diplomatic influence, technology and our ability to engage directly with a significant regional power all matter.

And I don’t think recognising those interests requires pretending Netanyahu’s government is behaving acceptably. Quite the opposite: if we think Israeli actions are damaging to British interests or violating principles Britain is committed to defending, then we should say so and use whatever leverage we have.

Where I’m less convinced is the idea that sanctions are inherently the right measure of that balance. If the objective is actually to influence Israeli behaviour, rather than simply demonstrate disapproval, then preserving a relationship in which Britain retains access and influence may be more useful than progressively damaging it.

There’s also a slightly awkward implication in saying that we should put “self-interest ahead of ethics” in some relationships but not others. Foreign policy inevitably involves both. The question is how to reconcile them when they conflict, not pretend one can simply be discarded.

So I’m not arguing for being soft on Israel. I’m arguing that Britain should be capable of simultaneously condemning actions we regard as unacceptable and recognising that maintaining a functional relationship with Israel remains in our national interest. Those positions aren't contradictory.

I’m arguing that Britain should be capable of simultaneously condemning actions we regard as unacceptable and recognising that maintaining a functional relationship with Israel remains in our national interest. Those positions aren't contradictory.

Britain has a long history of condemning actions that it finds unacceptable and being completely ignored by Netanyahu.