UK considering sanctions on Israeli ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir
Al Jazeera
The sanctions are in response to Smotrich’s comments that starving civilians in Gaza might be justified and Ben-Gvir’s remarks that violent settlers are heroes.
The United Kingdom is considering sanctioning Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over incendiary comments made about Palestinians.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday that he was mulling the sanctions in response to Smotrich‘s comments that starving civilians in Gaza might be justified and Ben-Gvir’s remarks that perpetrators of settler violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank were heroes.
The UK’s previous foreign secretary, David Cameron, had planned to sanction the Israeli officials before his then-governing Conservative Party lost an election in July, he revealed earlier this week.
“We are looking at that because they’re obviously abhorrent comments,” the prime minister said.
Both Smotrich and Ben-Gvir said the threat of sanctions would not deter them from changing their positions.
