The U.K. Sanctions Are a Joke. Israel Is the Settlements, and the Settlements Are Israel
Everyone is playing the game: Britain supposedly imposes sanctions, about a dozen other European countries pretend to join them and Israel responds with measures akin to a mouse striking back at an elephant so we can show the British a thing or two. Everyone is happy with themselves. The construction of settler homes on stolen Palestinian land will not stop, nor will the theft of livestock, because of what Britain has done, even if the world is delighting in these sanctions.
The new British government says ethnic cleansing is occurring in the West Bank, making it the first Western country to say that. This is grounds for hope and a moral act. Hurray for Britain, no cynicism intended. But Britain chose only to punish the settlers, which sets a dangerous precedent. By doing so, it is saying that there is Israel and there are settlers. There is a country and there is an occupation, there are Israelis and there are settlers.
How comfortable it is to make these distinctions, like distinguishing between Benjamin Netanyahu of wars and the opposition of peace. That way, perhaps no one will accuse Britain of antisemitism, except for Gideon Sa'ar, who specializes in blaming the world for that and punishing it accordingly.
But settlements are not an independent political entity. When Europe imposed sanctions on the occupied Crimean Peninsula, it also imposed sanctions on the occupier, Russia. How can you only punish the settlers without imposing penalties against those who initiated the settlements, fund them and defend and support them, namely the government of Israel?
The settlements are Israel and Israel is the settlements. The Green Line disappeared a long time ago, and no other line separates the West Bank from Israel, apart from the line of Apartheid. All of us are Israelis and all of us are settlers. All of us bear responsibility for what is being done in our name.
If Britain thinks that there is ethnic cleaning, elements of which are among the most serious war crimes and crimes against humanity, then what good is it to punish the settlers? The settlers are supporting actors in the horrors, and their responsibility is diminished. They are only the perpetrators — the soldiers carrying out the crime.
The settlement enterprise is an all-Israeli undertaking of the government and indeed the entire system. There is not a single official body not involved, directly or indirectly, either by action or by omission, undertaken with joy or with indifference. It is the state that should be punishing violent settlers, if it were a state of law; that is not the world's job. It is those responsible for the settlement enterprise who should be punished by the world because the Israeli government, like any government, cannot punish itself.
Therefore, Britain's decision to impose sanctions on the settlers provides the international community with a way to evade its responsibility. The world, which often deludes itself into believing that the source of all evil is Benjamin Netanyahu, must also remember that Netanyahu did not found the settlement enterprise. The entire Zionist enterprise stands behind the settlements, and with it the Zionist establishment throughout the world.
In terms of efficacy, sanctioning settlers will be of no consequence. The settlers are far removed from world culture, and nationalists believe Israel does not need the world. No sanctions on them will stop the extremists from running rampant over the stolen land.
Even the sanctions on imports of products from the settlements is of little consequence because only 2.3 percent of Israeli exports to Europe come from the settlements. At the Esh Kodesh outpost, the industry is hatred, not high-tech; at Adei-Ad, the leading product is violence, not cherry tomatoes. The wine from the settlements is tainted, made from the grapes of wrath cultivated on stolen land.
Israel is not interested in the sanctions imposed on the settlements. The settlers are not overly bothered either, and rightly so. Less than a day after they were announced, the Civil Administration on Wednesday discussed building 747 housing units in the West Bank. The main thing is that in Westminster there is glee.