Re. UK sanctions against Israeli ministers: Is it the thought that counts?
Three questions emerge from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s revelation that Britain is considering imposing sanctions against two far-right Israeli ministers.
- Why is Britain still only considering this, rather than taking action? Is Gaza’s more than 40,000 dead not a significant enough number?
- Does it even matter? The two ministers have a boss, but he’s not the focus of sanctions talk.
- Should sanctions as a humanitarian response to state-directed inhumanity be regarded rather like an inadequate gift to a friend or family member, ie, it’s the thought that counts?
Likely answers must factor in the grim context of the British government’s consideration of sanctions.
This news emerged a scant 48 hours after former British foreign secretary Lord David Cameron publicly said he had been working on a plan to blacklist Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Both ministers, Lord Cameron said, had espoused “extremist” views and sanctions would put pressure on Israel to comply with international law.
He added that the plan was whirring in his mind before the May announcement of the UK general election. After that, the proposal became “too much of a political act” to pursue during the six-weeks allowed for campaigning, he said.
When Mr Starmer’s Labour Party defeated Lord Cameron and his Conservative Party and formed the government, there wasn’t much talk of sanctions against the two Israeli far-right ministers. But now, Lord Cameron’s public remarks appear to have triggered a move within Labour to adopt a moral stance, at least in principle, even though the timeline, severity and intended impact of any sanctions remains vague to the point of barely existing.
Nothing that Britain or any other country does can change the reality of the dehumanisation pushed by the two Israeli ministers in question. Some months ago, Mr Smotrich suggested it might be “justified and moral” to starve Gaza’s two million people. And Mr Ben-Gvir praised Jewish settlers suspected of murdering a teenage Palestinian in the West Bank last year as “heroes”. But what about the man at the top, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu? He may not have mouthed the words used by Messers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir but surely, his executive actions scream even louder?
Nothing can change the hideous reality endured by the people of Gaza — bombed and besieged for more than a year and now, possibly also the target of a monstrous “surrender or starve” plan cobbled together by a retired army general, Giora Eiland.
Even so, the fact that Britain is even considering sanctions — an imperfect, very blunt object that’s barely a tool — is heartening, in some ways.
Almost no one else is even talking about any way in which the pain of Gaza’s multiple amputations might be humanely managed.
Originally published at https://www.rashmee.com
