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

[FloralDeerPattern]

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?

The anti Israel protests started immediately Hamas attacked them is the flaw in your argument @FloralDeerPattern

Indeed. Some even praised and cheered on October 7th 🤔

Israel were bombing Gaza on Oct 7 2023 at 7am GMT,did the protests start before then?

I have to say it's mad how so many posters can quickly come out of the woodwork to discuss protesters but have absolutely nothing to say about the relentless violent attacks by Israeli 'settlers' against innocent civillians supported by the Israeli government and the British government as per the thread subject. Fascinating.

And they will always use the tag words October 7th and Hamas even though the discussion is about the violence and displacement by the terrorists supported by the Israeli government.

Well it’s also fascinating how so many posters only come out of the woodwork when it’s Israel being criticised and have nothing to say about terrorists like the IRGC or Hamas when they do stuff like kill their own people or steal aid from them.

I’ve made it quite clear I’m against the Settlers from early on in this thread but I don’t see you criticising anyone but Israelis 🤷🏼‍♀️

Even Mike Huckabee is speaking out against the seige being carried out by Israelis - “Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting,”

5 days ago Israelis began their seige by blocking the doors to prevent the family from leaving. Then they shut out their water and electricity and have prevented food and water from reaching the family. All because they want them out of their home so they can take over the land.

The IDF have managed to flatten half of Gaza but they can't stop what the Israeli government describe as a 'handful' of violent settlers from attacking this family 🤔

It’s absolutely fair to single Israel out (particularly on threads about the Middle East) for reasons that have been explained many times.

Our Government’s reluctance to act is down to the power of lobbying and money money money! Their action (supplying military equipment to Israel), or lack of it (not placing sanctions), has to be on their own conscience, they can’t blame anyone else.

Yes I agree and you are right, but closing military bases (or actually just refusing access to them for now), might be the very difficult and brave kind of decision that our Government should take. They won’t though, how shameful!

I don't post anywhere but on this thread on this board anymore. I was sick of reporting abuse directed towards me and figured as has proven to be true that a thread about Israeli violence would be free from those posters who never have anything at all to say about that apart from a weak 'obviously I'm against that but....'

I think it’s deluded for anyone to think the Israel government is worse than the IRGC even for people who are very anti Israel.

So no, it isn’t fair to single Israel out. There is a reason the UK government is making it illegal in this country to actively support the IRGC. It’s because they are terrorists.

There we go then - why accuse others of “coming out of the woodwork” when you only want to post on one thread where you think everyone should be attacking Israel and not mentioning other countries.

A tip for you: the thread you want is called This is the reality of what Israel is doing. On that thread you can indulge the fantasy that Israel is uniquely awful if that’s what you’re looking for.

They are on part 7 and get pretty much left to it.

No, I started this thread and I'm pretty sure it's the one that I want to post on. Thanks though ❤️

The settlers are state sanctioned terrorists, but perhaps you think they are a “nicer class of terrorists” because they are Israeli?
Are the IRGC invading other Countries and carrying out ethnic cleansing? If not then it’s not a comparable situation is it? Also as has been pointed out many many many times our Government are not supporting or helping to fund the actions of the IRGC are they?

I agreed with you on page 3 that the Settler violence in the West Bank is not acceptable. I also agreed with you on page 8 that Israel should be criticised for what is happening with the Settlers. Though I agreed with you twice, you don't seem to like me engaging with "your thread".

Despite your comment about people coming out of the woodwork who have "absolutely nothing to say about the relentless violent attacks by Israeli 'settlers' against innocent civillians" - I don't actually see anyone disagreeing with you that the attacks are to be condemned.

The settlers are awful people and I would have no issue with guilty individuals being sanctioned by the international community. But actually I do think they are better than a terrorist government murdering their own people, yes. Nothing to do with them being Israeli or not Israeli.

Yes the IRGC are invading other countries via their proxies like Hamas. They invaded Israel and would love to carry out genocide on the Israeli people if they could.

@Twiglets1 ,

I am a secular Jew and I think we are coming to the point where we (the west) do need to get tough with Israel.

No, Israel aren’t the worst country in that neighbourhood; Iran are a lot worse, as are their proxies Hamas and Hezbollah. But is that really the point?!

Israel have become expansionist, demonstrating that they want to hold on to a lot more of Gaza and settle the West Bank, so there will be no possibility of a contiguous Palestine. And the settler violence is deemed by the government as more and more acceptable and even encouraged by some (G’vir, Smotrich and Katz for instance).

It is hard for Jews, especially older ones who remember the Kibbutzim years and when Israel really was a tiny country facing existential threat from foes on all sides. But that’s not the case any more. They are a regional nuclear armed superpower.

But Israel does need to abide by international laws and norms. And be held to account by the Western Word. If synagogues continue to send money to Israel (a far richer country per capita than the UK), then we can hardly complain when people confuse Jews with Zionists (in the sense or pro the Israeli government, come what may).

I know it’s hard to accept that Israel is no longer a liberal democracy governed by the rule of law, but just about every independent study shows them moving in the wrong direction.

Though I agreed with you twice, you don't seem to like me engaging with "your thread".

Being real mumsnet told me not to engage with you so I would rather not get into things with you. Like I said I only post on this thread because I was sick of reporting posts and your posts aren't really revelant to the topic of this thread so I don't really see a need to engage deeply with you. I'll be leaving it there but feel free to keep posting on 'my' thread if you like.

Firstly you know full well that the Israeli government could easily deal with the settlers but choose not to, indeed they encourage and back them. Oooh just like Iran backing terrorist groups eh? So stop pretending settlers are just a random bunch of nasty people.
And talking of genocide, Israel aren’t suffering a genocide - but they aren’t averse to attempting to carry one out are they?!
Honestly with the amount of innocent civilians (many of whom are children) that Israel have killed, and continue to kill every single day, but still they (and you) insist on painting Israel as always the victim 🙄

Where I'm from we've known Israel us an apartheid state since I was a very small child and I'm 51 now. The settler violence is a perfect example of that. You can't argue its only a small extremist groups when the successive governments dont do anything to stop it or rectify it. As a previous poster said it would be very easy for the government to stop it. You cant steal your neighbour's house if you are locked up in prison. Can you imagine if a few English villagers decide they were going to go into Scotland and take over Scottish homes and the government just stood around wringing their hands and letting it happen.

But you have been engaging with me when you could have ignored my posts so that was your choice. If you don't want to engage any more then fine, it didn't really need an announcement but ok. Naturally I will continue to feel free to post on any thread I want to.

I wonder where you're from that you have been taught to consider Israel an apartheid state from a very small child. Obviously you don't need to answer but the indoctrination of very small children is not a good look for any country.

Who said settlers are just a random group of nasty people? I didn't, and I agree with you that the Israel government ought to be dealing with them and punishing them. They aren't doing so which reflects very badly on them. When all's said and done though, I don't think any country in the Middle East is worse than Iran under the IRGC with the way they treat even their own people.

Israelis were the victims on 7/10/23 including children and babies but they aren't victims now. I don't see them as victims in the war with Hamas but I do think Jewish people in the UK can be victims of antisemitism due to an overseas war.

You don't have to choose and say either Israeli civilians are victims or Palestinians are. They both have been victims at different times. I'm sorry for any innocent person caught up in violence and the Palestinian people are paying a heavy price indeed for what Hamas did/do and what Israeli leaders continue to do.

A lot of people do see Israel as an Apartheid state. A lot of South Africans certainly see it that way.

I can see the analogy as a part of the population in Israel is kept separate in ‘homelands’ and has very unequal rights.

However, it is a flawed analogy in that it isn’t based on race. The Arabs within Israel proper have (pretty much) the same rights as anyone else, including voting and even becoming MPs. It also ignores a long and complex history.

But there are zero excuses for settler violence, zero, especially condoned by the government. ‘Not as bad as Hamas’, ‘Rough Neighbour’, ‘7/10’ don’t cut it at all. It is racist and these are pogroms. Seeing Jewish people carrying out pogroms is heartbreaking to any liberal Jew who believes the ‘never again’ post-Shoah refrain was meant to be universal.