Ben Gvir and Smotrich pose an existential threat to Palestinians. They must be sanctioned
David Cameron possesses a fine mind, the ability to master a brief, and outstanding presentation skills.
He is nevertheless destined to be marked down as the worst British foreign secretary since World War Two - by some distance. Morally the worst; I am tempted to use the term depraved.
By the time former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appointed him foreign secretary last November, the terrible trajectory of events was there for all to see. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already unleashed his killing machine in Gaza.
Moreover, Netanyahu had already made his intentions known when he cited the biblical Amalek narrative, with the terrible instruction to annihilate men, women and children.
Yet, from the moment Cameron entered the foreign office, he made it his business to enable, facilitate and support what even last November many feared was turning into a genocide.
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In the face of mounting evidence of Israeli war crimes, he resisted pressure to end arms sales. He ordered the suspension of British donor aid to Unrwa, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, on the basis of a flimsy, unevidenced dossier circulated by Israel that accused the agency’s staff of playing a role in the atrocities of 7 October.
Cameron appears not to have made any attempt at an independent assessment of Israeli claims about Unrwa, the only organisation with the ability to alleviate the lives of starving Palestinians.
Reign of terror
Cameron trashed the International Court of Justice amid its investigation into claims that Israel was carrying out a genocide. Perhaps worst of all, Cameron did his best to block Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, when he sought permission to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and senior Hamas figures for war crimes.
Palestinian lawyer Raji Sourani recently warned that Gaza was becoming “the graveyard of international law”, noting that the West was “jeopardising something precious” by shielding Israel from the consequences of its actions. Historians will damn Cameron.
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But this week, he emerged from retirement with a worthwhile idea: let’s slap sanctions on Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
These two ministers effectively run the occupied West Bank, where they have established a reign of terror in defiance of not just basic humanity, but also international law.
I am writing this article from the northern West Bank town of Nablus, where the effects of the murderous policies of Ben Gvir and Smotrich are all too keenly felt.
To make a serious difference, Lammy needs to go after the masterminds behind the brutal and illegal Israeli takeover of the occupied West Bank
Around 10 kilometres south of here is Huwwara, where Israeli settlers launched a racist pogrom early last year. Smotrich responded by calling for Israel to “wipe out” Huwwara altogether.
Last weekend, I drove past Huwwara on my way to the idyllic village of Beita, which nestles in the hills above.
Here, the malign influence of Ben Gvir is keenly felt. Villagers are being harassed by settlers from the newly constructed Evyatar settlement. One farmer, Mohammad Bassim Najjar, said the situation has gravely worsened since Ben Gvir visited Evyatar last June, with the national security minister vowing: “We have to settle the land of Israel and at the same time need to launch a military campaign, blow up buildings, assassinate terrorists. Not one, or two, but dozens, hundreds, or if needed, thousands.”
Since then, Najjar told Middle East Eye, “the situation has got far worse”. He said that hundreds of settlers, protected by armed soldiers, have surrounded his house, shouting: “We will kill your kids.” They steal his farm animals, destroy his farm equipment and olive trees, and assault him and his children.
Twisted politics
Beita, incidentally, is where American citizen Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was shot dead by an Israeli army sniper last month. I went to the rooftop from where the sniper fired the fatal shot, and then walked the more than 200 metres across rough terrain to where she was standing when she fell.
Having seen this, I believe there is no way the killing could have been accidental as the Israeli army claims; it appears it was a deliberate, cold-blooded assassination.
Yet, there have been no repercussions, nor were there any consequences when other unarmed villagers from Beita were killed by soldiers or settlers in recent years - and it’s the same story in many other villages. Olive harvesting season is underway, and we are hearing the usual reports of land seizures and attacks on farmers as they set about their work.
Ben Gvir’s formal title is national security minister; his real purpose is to drive Palestinians off their land.
He is a monster. The nearest comparison in Britain to Ben Gvir’s twisted, racist politics would be Tommy Robinson, currently under investigation for inciting this past summer’s race riots.
In Britain, we would not contemplate electing Robinson to government - but Ben Gvir has many of the powers of a British home secretary.
He’s the leader of the Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, and a protege of the Kahanist movement - a violent, racist ideology that advocates for the expulsion of Palestinians from their land. He has been convicted at least eight times (it’s hard to keep count) for crimes including racial incitement and links to terrorism.
Sinister project
Ben Gvir first came to prominence 30 years ago in a particularly frightening way. He threatened then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on live television shortly before his assassination.
Recently, when Israeli police detained nine Israeli soldiers accused of sodomising a Palestinian prisoner, Ben Gvir came to the defence of the soldiers.
Smotrich, head of the Religious Zionist Party, is arguably even more sinister. As an almost-unknown MP seven years ago, he published a paper proposing “full Israeli sovereignty to the heartland regions of Judea and Samaria”, along with the establishment of “new cities and settlements deep inside the territory and bringing hundreds of thousands of additional settlers to live therein”.
Such a project rules out any idea of a two-state solution, and it is illegal under international law. When his plan was published, it was easy to dismiss Smotrich as a maverick. Now, as finance minister in charge of the civil administration of the occupied West Bank, he is in a position to put it into practice.
It’s all very well for Cameron to call for sanctions on Ben Gvir and Smotrich today. He had the chance to act when he was foreign secretary.
His successor, David Lammy, now has the opportunity to do what Cameron, either through laziness or cowardice, failed to do. To his credit, Lammy this week did sanction a small number of settler organisations and outposts.
But to make a serious difference, Lammy needs to go after the masterminds behind the brutal and illegal Israeli takeover of the occupied West Bank.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
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