Amnesty International urges UK to sanction senior Israeli officials

Amnesty International UK on Tuesday pressed the British government to sanction senior Israeli officials. The organisation assessed that a new measure announced earlier the same day failed to hold the “architects” of violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank to account. “Today’s announcement is a step, but it is not enough,” said Amnesty International UK Crisis Response Manager Kristyan Benedict in a statement after Britain and five other countries announced sanctions targeting networks that “finance and facilitate settler attacks” against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. He said that if the British government is serious about sanctioning those who “support and sponsor violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank”, it must recognise that settlements and settler violence are “state policy, directed and funded from the highest levels.” Earlier on Tuesday, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, and Norway announced sanctions in response to record settlement expansion and escalating violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. “Targeting settler funding networks while the ministers driving this campaign face no consequences whatsoever is not meaningful accountability. It leaves the ‘architects’ untouched,” Benedict stressed. He added that the UK should sanction Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Settlement Affairs Minister Orit Strock, Defence Minister Israel Katz, and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. Netanyahu and Gallant are currently on the International Criminal Court’s wanted list pursuant to arrest warrants related to alleged “war crimes and crimes against humanity” in the Gaza Strip. The human rights group also urged the British government to ban all trade with Israeli settlements and to halt cooperation and investment ties that, according to them, enable the illegal occupation and apartheid practices. “The legal obligation is clear, but the political will is still not strong enough,” Benedict stated.