Why Western sanctions on Israel are a face-saving manoeuvre
Palestinians gather at an aid distribution center in Deir Al-Balah, in the Gaza Strip, 28 May 2025
Muhammad Shehada writes in The New Arab on 19 June, 2025:
The recent sanctions imposed by the UK and its allies on Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich were heralded in some quarters as a long-overdue moral stance against rising extremism within Israel’s leadership.
Yet beneath the surface of this headline-grabbing gesture lies a far more calculated and cynical strategy – one that reflects not a principled reckoning with Israeli impunity, but a desperate attempt by Western powers to maintain the appearance of action while enabling the very atrocities they now claim to condemn.
These carefully choreographed measures, limited in scope and hollow in consequence, reveal a deeper truth: that for all their rhetoric, these governments remain unwilling to confront the structural, societal, and institutional engines of Israel’s ongoing system of apartheid and genocidal warfare against Palestinians.
Earlier in June, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway took an unprecedented step that broke an entrenched taboo. The five governments imposed sanctions on two far-right ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government: Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. Until not long ago, this move would have been unthinkable.
Yet this seemingly bold action was met with ridicule by multiple experts, especially Israelis, who described it as “baby steps”, “cowardly”, “naïve”, or a deliberate “manoeuvre” to “let Israel off the hook,” pointing to the devil in the details.
The same can be said about the EU’s recent sudden awakening and sharpening of tone vis-à-vis Israel, according to multiple diplomats and experts who spoke to The New Arab. This includes, most prominently, the EU’s announcement in late May of a review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, and whether Israel is violating Article 2 on respect for human rights.