Israeli politicans fearing “slippery slope” condemn sanctions on Smotrich and Ben Gvir
JVL Introduction
Just a short while ago the Israeli state detained two members of the UK parliament accusing them of planning to “document the activities of security forces and spread anti-Israel hatred” and refused entry to officials who were visiting as part of a parliamentary delegation.
Now the British government, along with Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway, has taken modest steps to sanction the two most extreme members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
According to Ha’aretz, opposition politicians have leapt to their defence, fearing “a slippery slope leading to a wider ban on Israeli leaders with a hand in the increasingly indefensible trajectory of the Gaza war and ambivalence toward vicious settler violence in the West Bank.”
The article says Israel is getting a taste of its own medicine after years of systematically keeping out lawmakers who committed the sin of supporting a boycott against it.
This article was originally published by Ha'aretz on Tue 10 Jun 2025. Read the original here.
As Ben-Gvir and Smotrich Face Sanctions, Look Who's Backing Israel's Far Right Now
The latest international sanctions against the stars of Israel’s far right have managed to unite parts of the centrist opposition – long critical of Ben-Gvir and Smotrich – out of fear of a slippery slope
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While I fully agree with the sanctions against Ben Gvir & Smotrich (& I would add many others to the list), I can’t help noticing that the timing of this announcement coincides with the UK govt. failing to issue any form of condemnation of – let alone measures against – the Zionist government’s violent seizure of a British vessel in international waters & the kidnapping of its totally non-violent crew sailing to a country in which the ICJ has ruled Israel has no right to occupy.
A convenient diversionary tactic?
Is it genuine? It looks like a carefully coordinated job to make it look as though Starmer and others are “doing” something, with fake outrage from USA and Israel. Meanwhile UK carries on supplying arms and intelligence.
The sanctions were imposed in respect of statements about the West Bank. Nobody has been sanctioned for the genocidal attack on Gaza. Ben Gvir and Smotrich are sanctioned but the man in charge is Netanyahu.
I agree with above comments. Are Starmer and Lammy so naive as to believe that the whole problem is two bad apples….?