Britain imposed sanctions on four Israeli individuals on Monday, saying they “threatened and perpetrated acts of aggression and violence” against Palestinians in the West Bank.
The measures were taken under Britain’s Global Human Rights sanctions regime, a government notice showed.
Violence in the West Bank reached record levels in 2023. Israel’s failure to act has led to an environment of near total impunity for settler extremists in the West Bank.
The sanctions will set financial and travel restrictions in an attempt to tackle increasing violence and threats to instability in life in the West Bank.
A statement released by the British Embassy in Israel released a statement on the matter Monday afternoon, vowing consequences for four Israelis living in the West Bank who have “committed human rights abuses against Palestinian communities in the West Bank.”
Two sanctioned Israelis are Moshe Sharvit and Yinon Levy, have reportedly threatened other members of their communities with physical violence and threats of escalation at gunpoint.
UK Foreign Secretary, Lord David Cameron, said: “This behavior is illegal and unacceptable. Israel must also take stronger action and put a stop to settler violence. Too often, we see commitments made and undertakings given, but not followed through.”
UK authorities subjected the two to a freeze of any assets in the UK, banning them from gaining a visa and entering the country.
The embassy’s statement reported that in October 2023, Moshe Sharvit harassed and assaulted Palestinian farmers, attacking residents of a small twenty-family community and threatening them, giving them “five hours to leave.”
Yinon Levy, Zvi Bar Yosef, and Ely Federman were three others barred from the European nation.
The statement also added that the UK government has continually called for a halt in West Bank expansion, noting that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has raised the issue with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on several occasions.
US sanctions on violent Israelis in West Bank
The US recently signed on a special presidential order against four Israeli settlers involved in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank: Shalom Zicherman, Yinon Levi, David Chai Chasdai, and Einan Tanjile. According to the order, the four were involved in arson that led to harm to human life, threats against Palestinian farmers who abandoned their homes, and physical harm to Palestinians.
The order is considered unusually severe and is mainly given to exclusively to terrorists in times of war or to impede their economic activities. This blacklist, which is signed off on by only top-level US officials, includes the Houthis in Yemen, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Iran, Russian oligarch sanctioned during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and a series of senior terrorists that the US designated to cut off their funding.
Cancellation of the order can be done through a directive from the US president, for example – then-president Donald Trump initiated the order on the Houthis, and President Joe Biden himself signed the order to remove it (and then returned it later).
Reuters and Yinon Shalom Yitach contributed to this report.
