Britain considering putting sanctions on Israeli ministers Ben Gvir and Smotrich
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he is "looking at" sanctioning Israel's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, as well as the national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday in response to a question by Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, Starmer said comments made by the two ministers were "abhorrent" and that the government is "looking at" sanctioning them.
Davey said that Smotrich "said that starving two million people in Gaza might be justified and moral". He added that Ben Gvir "called settlers who killed a 19-year-old in the West Bank heroes", before asking whether the government will sanction the ministers.
Starmer replied: "We are looking at that, because they are abhorrent comments, as he [Davey] rightly says, along with other really concerning activity in the West Bank, but also across the region."
On Wednesday morning, Labour MP Emily Thornberry labelled Ben Gvir and Smotrich "racist".
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This comes after David Cameron, the foreign secretary under the previous Conservative government, said on Tuesday that he had planned to impose sanctions on them.
But he said he stopped short of doing so because of the general election in July.
In an interview with the BBC on Tuesday morning, Cameron said: "Smotrich and Gvir had said things like encouraging people to stop aid convoys getting into Gaza and encouraging extreme settlers in the West Bank with the appalling things they have been carrying out."
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary David Lammy has announced fresh sanctions against three Israeli settler outposts and four organisations he said are responsible for "heinous abuses of human rights" against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Tirzah Valley Farm Outpost, Meitarim Outpost and Shuvi Eretz Outpost are the settlements targeted.
Like all Israeli settlements in the internationally recognised Palestinian territory, they are considered illegal under international law.
The UK has also placed sanctions on Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva, a religious school in the West Bank accused of encouraging attacks on Palestinians; Hashomer Yosh, which provides volunteers for settlement outposts; Torat Lechima, a charity providing financial support to settlements; and construction company Amana.
Lammy said: "When I went to the West Bank earlier this year, on one of my first trips as foreign secretary, I met with Palestinians whose communities have suffered horrific violence at the hands of Israeli settlers.
"The inaction of the Israeli government has allowed an environment of impunity to flourish where settler violence has been allowed to increase unchecked," he added.
"Settlers have shockingly even targeted schools and families with young children."
Lammy called on the Israeli government to "crack down on settler violence and stop settler expansion on Palestinian land".
'Hateful, violent, disgusting language'
The Foreign Office told Middle East Eye: "The UK strongly condemns settler violence and inciteful remarks such as those made by Israel’s National Security Minister Ben Gvir, which threaten the status quo of the Holy Sites in Jerusalem.
"We do not comment on future sanctions designations."
In a BBC interview on Wednesday morning, Labour MP Emily Thornberry said the possibility of sanctions on the two ministers should be "under review".
"We are sometimes overlooking what's going on in the West Bank, where more than 700 people have been killed in the last year as well, and where settler violence has got much worse," she said.
"I think the bottom and top of it is that even if you are responsible for the most hateful, violent, disgusting language, racist stuff which frankly these two [Smotrich and Ben Gvir] are - that isn't really enough for you to get sanctioned.
"I think it's got to be about action," she added. "You've got to keep it under review."
Thornberry added that "there are allegations against the security minister, that's Ben Gvir, that he ordered Israeli police not to take actions against settlers who attack Palestinians, that he has told them not to protect aid convoys en route to Gaza.
"Now if there's evidence of that, then that seems to me to be the sort of thing that could result in sanctions."
Ben Gvir, a far-right member of the Israeli government, has said he wants to build a synagogue in Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, that Palestinians should be expelled from Gaza and that Palestinian prisoners must be executed to free up space in prisons.
Ben Gvir has previously hailed Baruch Goldtsein, an armed settler who in 1994 entered Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque in Ramadan opened fire on Muslim worshippers, killing 29 people, as a hero.
This latest development comes as political pressure mounts on the British government to take stronger action against Israel.
Nearly 50 British MPs from seven political parties so far have backed a parliamentary motion tabled last week calling for the Labour government to take measures including "ending all military exports to Israel, banning the import of goods from illegal Israeli settlements and revoking the 2030 Roadmap which deepens UK economic, trade and security ties with Israel".
Separately, Labour MP Olivia Blake wrote to Lammy on Monday urging a halt to all arms sales to Israel.
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