Sanctions against Israeli settlers should go further than travel bans – Tánaiste

Sanctions against extremist Israeli settlers guilty of targeting Palestinians in the West Bank should go further than travel bans if the violence persists, Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said. It comes as a United Nations report published on Thursday deplored what it called a “rapid deterioration” of human rights in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and urged Israeli authorities to end unlawful killings and settler violence against the Palestinian population.

Earlier this month the European Union agreed to move towards sanctioning people who give financial support to Hamas, and asked its foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell to draw up a list of extremist Israeli settlers to be sanctioned.

Mr Martin was asked by reporters if he believed that sanctions beyond travel bans should be introduced, and if Israel should start paying for the damage caused by settlers.

“Yes, I think sanctions should go beyond travel bans if this persists. Israel is saying it’s a small minority but the evidence is that the action of settlers has been backed up by the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) on the ground, with Palestinians being attacked and various communities being displaced. The issue fundamentally is if we are to have any chance of a contiguous Palestinian state the action of the settlers has to stop, particularly with the far-right, very religious fundamentalist settlers who almost believe that the biblical reality is this is all of their land and they can displace anybody in their way, that has to stop and the Israeli government has a responsibility to stop that.

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“We are part of the West Bank consortium which is endeavouring to put pressure on Israel to pay for damage to any EU-funded infrastructure and most recently there was a school that was funded by Irish Aid that was very badly damaged by Israeli forces. We believe what’s happening in the West Bank is shocking, it’s in violation of UN resolutions and in violation of international humanitarian law, and we’ve made it clear consistently at UN and other levels that this has to stop now.”

Speaking at the conclusion of an EU Council summit in mid-December, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the EU had agreed to ask Mr Borrell to draw up a list of violent settlers “who would be banned then from travelling to Europe” although he said there is “still some work to be done on that”. Mr Borrell’s plan will then go to EU foreign ministers, Mr Varadkar said.

British foreign secretary David Cameron has already announced that those responsible for settler violence against Palestinians would be banned from entering Britain. He said that “extremist settlers, by targeting and killing Palestinian civilians, are undermining security and stability for both Israelis and Palestinians”.

The US has also announced that it will ban such extremist settlers from entering the country. It comes after an upsurge in violence in the West Bank. Palestinians living in the area have accused Jewish settlers of using the Israel/Hamas conflict in Gaza as a pretence to seize more land and engage in violence in the West Bank.

A United Nations report published on Thursday deplored what it called a “rapid deterioration” of human rights in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and urged an end to the violence.

Tal Heinrich, a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister’s office, dismissed the report as “quite ridiculous”.

“It completely belittles the major security threats to Israelis emerging from Judea and Samaria,” she said, referring to the West Bank by its Hebrew biblical names. “Yes, we arrested hundreds of terror suspects in that area and we will continue to do whatever it takes to maintain our security.”

Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the use of unnecessary or disproportionate force against Palestinians in the West Bank was “extremely troubling”.

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