UK sanctions must target roots of settler violence - starting with Smotrich and Ben Gvir
1 June 2025
As long as
extremist ministers are working to normalise ethnic cleansing, piecemeal
sanctions against individual settlers won't work
Israeli
politicians Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich attend a special
session of the Knesset in Jerusalem on 29 December 2022 (Amir Cohen/AFP)
In Israel,
there is an infamous metaphor known as "mowing the grass". Like many
other terms used by the state, it is a horrific and dehumanising phrase
that refers to Israel’s longstanding practice of regular, short, sharp
bombardments of Gaza in order to “keep Palestinians in their place”.
It’s used openly by Israeli politicians and military figures who see
Palestinian civilians either as collateral damage, or as part of the
"lawn" themselves.
Nowadays, it feels a bit dated, considering how Israel’s current genocide in Gaza dwarfs the bombardments that preceded it. The grass is no longer mowed; now it’s scorched earth.
But last week, when the UK government issued a new round of settler sanctions
for three individuals and four entities in the occupied West Bank, I
thought not of lawns, but of weeds. These sanctions are trimming the
branches instead of digging out the roots.
It’s the same thing I thought when piecemeal sanctions packages were announced last year, in February, May and October.
Sanctioning a few individuals and entities won’t even begin to
scratch the surface - not while extremist senior Israeli ministers are
calling for an unprecedented expansion of illegal settlements.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister
Bezalel Smotrich are the grand architects of the current wave of illegal
settlement expansion. Sanctions must target them to begin to affect
change, not just an unhinged interviewee on the latest Louis Theroux documentary.
And even then, that would simply be the first step. More than half a century of illegal occupation will not miraculously end with a change of Israeli government.
Pervasive violence
Sanctions must target the architects because of how pervasive
settlement violence is. Last month, I took a delegation of British MPs
to the West Bank so they could see the day-to-day realities of
occupation - from refugee camp clearances in Tulkarm in the north, all
the way down to settler violence in the villages of Masafer Yatta in the
south.
There are countless emotions I could recall: the shock of being spat
at in Jerusalem for wearing a crucifix, the fear of being pulled over at
gunpoint in Hebron, and the awe-inspiring bravery, hope and tenacity
that Palestinian refugees in Tulkarm showed, even as they spoke of being
displaced from the refugee camps where their families had lived since
the Nakba.
I could talk at length about all these experiences, but most chilling
of all was simply the degree to which settlers and soldiers seemed to
work in collaboration; the total air of impunity with which settlers
swaggered around, perversely relishing the task of dispossessing
indigenous people.
The first such example we witnessed was in Susiya, a Palestinian village in Masafer Yatta that was expropriated by Israel in 1986, its Palestinian residents expelled. Today, only a small community of steadfast Palestinians remain there.
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Our delegation in Susiya was surrounded by illegal Israeli settlers
wearing militia-style body armour, and armed to the teeth with assault
rifles and clubs. They were clearly there to intimidate. Two Israeli
soldiers arrived at the scene and began laughing and joking with the
settlers. It wasn’t just that they were unconcerned with what the
settlers were doing; they appeared to be actively enjoying the show.
As they stood side-by-side - casually wielding their weapons, and
wearing camouflage Kevlar jackets adorned with Israeli flags - it was
suddenly very clear how blurred the lines of power and authority were.
Distinguishing between settler violence and state violence feels like
semantics in such a situation.
We saw this impunity again in Hebron, as we were having lunch with a
Palestinian human rights defender on his patio, bordered by metal fences
with security cameras.
Their usefulness was proven immediately, when two settlers came up to
the fence and started shouting at our host: “How much is your house?”
When he said it wasn’t for sale, they replied: “It doesn’t matter, we’re
going to buy it anyway.” They went on to insult Islam, and said that
all Arabs needed to leave.
Asked why, they simply replied: “Because God gave us this land.” Metres away, Israeli soldiers looked on listlessly.
Digging out the roots
This is by no means an exhaustive account, even for the short week or
so that I was there. In Jerusalem, I saw a settler strolling around the
crowded market streets, surrounded by his children, while holding his
assault rifle casually, pointed down in their direction.
I contemplated how strange it was to encounter someone who clearly
gains such satisfaction from provoking fear in others, and thought about
what might be said from a sociological perspective about a society that
produces so many people of this disposition.
These settlers are pawns in a grand political vision that repudiates morality while laying claim to it
But targeting each settler individually is not going to make any real
difference. It is precisely such light-touch approaches that have
enabled a settler-colonial, apartheid system to persist for more than
half a century.
Settlers can act this way only because they are emboldened by the
extremist rhetoric of their leaders and the actions of soldiers. It is
in this collaboration that the beating heart of the settler-colonial,
apartheid system lies.
Each time Ben Gvir storms Al-Aqsa compound with his settlers, each time Smotrich calls for a Palestinian village to be “erased”,
it’s fuel for extremist settlers as they cultivate their burning hatred
of Palestinians. These settlers are pawns in a grand political vision
that repudiates morality while laying claim to it.
Instead of piecemeal sanctions, the only solution is to tackle the
problem at its source; to dig out the roots, and sanction the ministers
responsible for orchestrating this nightmare.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.