The illegal settlement enterprise is eroding Israel’s legitimacy

Settlers marching to the evacuated West Bank outpost of Homesh, May 2023

The Haaretz lead editorial on 12 February 2024:

France’s decision to impose sanctions on 28 settlers involved in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank is another step in the right direction by the international community. According to the French foreign ministry, the steps are a response to the growing settler violence since the outbreak of the war. According to the ministry, it’s Israel’s responsibility “to put an end to it and prosecute its perpetrators.”

The French aren’t the first to take this route, which includes not permitting extremist settlers involved in violent acts against Palestinians into their country. U.S. President Joe Biden also issued an order this month permitting sanctions against extremist settlers who have been involved in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. In the initial stage, he imposed sanctions on four settlers – including one who, according to the Biden administration, led the pogroms in Hawara.

Britain has also announced economic sanctions and travel limitations on four settlers involved in violence against Palestinians. British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said, “We should be clear about what is happening here. Extremist Israeli settlers are threatening Palestinians, often at gunpoint, and forcing them off land that is rightfully theirs.” Israel, Cameron said, isn’t doing enough to put an end to the violence.

The wave of sanctions on settlers won’t stop with France. The European Union could soon decide whether to impose sanctions against extremist settlers who have attacked Palestinians. The decision on the matter requires the unanimous consent of the EU foreign ministers, and it’s not clear whether every EU country will agree to support it.

Back in early December, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell declared that Brussels would propose that EU member countries place sanctions on right-wing extremists involved in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. “The time has come to move from words to actions … and to start adopting the measures … with regard to the acts of violence against the Palestinian population in the West Bank,” he said.

Canada is also considering similar steps. This month, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly said that the government in Ottawa intends to impose sanctions on “extremist settlers and we will also bring new sanctions on Hamas leaders.”

It is good that the international community has decided to draw a clear boundary between the legitimate State of Israel and the illegal settlement enterprise, which is eroding Israel’s legitimacy. The lack of a distinction between sovereign Israel and the occupied territories serves those who dream of annexing the West Bank and imposing apartheid. For anyone who wants to live in a country that doesn’t rule over another people, such steps, in addition to international recognition of a Palestinian state, will advance the future implementation of a solution involving two states for two peoples.

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