- cross-posted to:
- world
- cross-posted to:
- world
Britain is considering sanctioning Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, over comments they made about civilians in Gaza and West Bank settlers, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Wednesday.
Previous foreign secretary David Cameron had also recommended sanctioning Smotrich and Ben-Gvir before his then-governing Conservative Party lost an election in July, and Starmer told parliament he too was looking at the option.
[Edit title for clarity’]
Regarding sanctions on “individuals”, we have the example of Russia after the 2014 Crimea invasion and annexation.
They dont work.
Also for a country that is considered democratic, government ministers are not some rouge individuals. They also represent the government as a whole, which in turn represent its peoples political will at the time of the election.
For sanctions to be meaningful, they must address the actions of the government as a whole. So cutting diplomatic ties, pulling out of economic agreements, stopping trade in certain parts of the economy, arms embargos and so on.