As U.S., U.K. and EU sanction violent Israeli settlers, Canada hangs back

The Trudeau government still won't say if it's considering imposing sanctions on violent Israeli settlers in the wake of travel bans announced by both the U.S. and the United Kingdom in recent days.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said last week that he will recommend EU sanctions as well. 

Canada, like its American, British and European allies, has called on Israel to restrain extremist Jewish settlers who have brought new levels of fear and violence to the West Bank under the year-old government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu's cabinet includes some of Israel's most radical settler leaders in its top posts.

On Friday, Canada co-signed a joint EU-U.K.-Australia statement saying that Israel's failure to restrain or prosecute Jewish extremists has created  "an environment of near-complete impunity" for settlers engaging in acts of violence.

But a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada (GAC) wouldn't say whether the federal government is considering taking action against violent settlers itself.

"Canada is judicious in its approach to imposing sanctions and is committed to their effective and coordinated use when appropriate," GAC spokesperson Grantly Franklin told CBC News. "To that end, Canada has established a rigorous due diligence process to consider and evaluate circumstances that may warrant the use of sanctions."

"We are banning those responsible for settler violence from entering the U.K.," wrote U.K. Foreign Minister (and former prime minister) David Cameron on X on Thursday. "Extremist settlers, by targeting and killing Palestinian civilians, are undermining security and stability for both Israelis and Palestinians."

U.S. President Joe Biden has warned Israel repeatedly it has to act against Jewish settlers who began escalating their attacks on Palestinian civilians well before October 7.

"Pouring gasoline on fire is what it's like," Biden said on October 25. "They're attacking Palestinians in places that they're entitled to be, and it has to stop. They have to be held accountable."

U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told a media briefing the Netanyahu government had chosen not to act.

"The White House has made public that the president has raised that directly with Prime Minister Netanyahu in their conversations," Miller said. "[U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken] has raised it as recently as last Thursday when we were in Israel.

"And in all those conversations, we made clear that while we expected the Government of Israel to take action, the United States was ready and willing to take our own action if we didn't see them take actions."

Miller added that in order to impose a visa ban on violent Israeli extremists, the U.S. is drawing up lists that would affect "dozens" of settlers, and possibly also their family members.