Foreign Secretary David Lammy faced calls from MPs to sanction far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich in Parliament yesterday.
While he refused to commit to action against Israel’s national security minister and finance minister in the chamber, he did tell the Commons that the government was “very concerned” by settler violence and expansion “and by the rhetoric that we are hearing from members of the Israeli government”.
Lammy was pressed for an answer by Foreign Affairs Select Committee Chair Emily Thornberry, who told MPs: “Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton tells us that before the last general election, the Foreign Office was working up potential sanctions against those two most controversial and infamous settlers and ministers.”
Last month, Cameron told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he had considered sanctions against the two Israeli ministers, whom he called “extremist”, as a way of putting pressure on the Israeli government.
Thornberry asked Lammy “to tell us when a decision might be made, or if one has already been made, about those Ministers?”
The Foreign Secretary responded by saying that he thought Cameron was “wrong to talk about sanctions under consideration – particularly to talk about sanctions that he said were under consideration but then did not implement”.
He added that he would not “get drawn on sanctions policy at the dispatch box”.
Earlier this month, Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer condemned comments by Israel’s finance minister Smotrich that he was considering territorial expansion in the West Bank.
Last month, at Prime Minister’s Questions, Sir Keir Starmer said that the government was “looking at” sanctions against the two Israeli ministers following a question by Liberal Democrat Party leader Sir Ed Davey.
Ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have a history of making maximalist territorial statements and controversial comments.
Last month, Times of Israel reported that Smotrich, the leader of the Religious Zionism party, told a conference that he wanted Israel to annex the entirety of the West Bank and Gaza and for “the establishment of new cities and settlements deep in the (West Bank)” with thousands more settlers.
He also a conference in Paris last year that the Palestinian people were “an invention” and has previously described himself as a “proud homophobe”.
Ben-Gvir, who grew up supporting the extremist Kach movement of Rabbi Meir Kahane, has previously been convicted of incitement to violence.
“I made mistakes, but so many years have passed”, he told a court hearing attempting to disqualify his cabinet appointment.
In August, Ben-Gvir clashed with Israel’s then-defence minister Yoav Gallant after the head of Israel’s internal security bureau, the Shin Bet, issued an unprecedented warning about the threats to Israel posed by ultra-nationalist Jewish domestic terrorism and those who enable it.
Gallant condemned his cabinet colleague. He posted on X/Twitter: “In the face of Minister Ben Gvir's irresponsible actions that endanger the national security of the State of Israel and create internal divisions in the nation, the head of Shin Bet and his staff are doing their jobs and warning about the dire consequences of these actions.”
