|
July 26, 2024
The Albanese government has imposed sanctions and travel bans on Israeli settlers linked to attacks on Palestinians, as the Jewish state's Prime Minister urged the US to give his country more weapons to "finish the job" in Gaza.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced the sanctions on seven settlers and a Jewish youth group on Thursday, saying settler violence in the West Bank was inflaming tensions and undermining the prospect of a two-state solution.
"The individuals sanctioned today have been involved in violent attacks on Palestinians," she said. "This includes beatings, sexual assault and torture of Palestinians, resulting in serious injury and, in some cases, death."
Anthony Albanese said the sanctions were "the right thing to do", saying West Bank settlements were illegal and an impediment to peace.
The move came hours after Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the US congress, calling for America to stand with Israel to defeat Hamas and other Iranianbacked terror groups across the Middle East. "Our enemies are your enemies. Our fight is your fight. And our victory will be your victory," Mr Netanyahu said.
The US, the EU, Japan, France, Britain, New Zealand and Canada have sanctioned Israeli settlers in recent months, and the UN's International Court of Justice last week demanded Israel end its occupation of the Palestinian territories and make reparations for its "wrongful acts".
Labor has taken a harder line on Israel than the Coalition amid the war in Gaza, backing Palestinian statehood in a UN vote and condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank as "illegal".
Those sanctioned include Yinon Levi, Neria Ben Pazi, Zvi Bar Yosef, and Einan Tanjil, who are accused of attacking Palestinian farmers, and David Chai Chasdai, who has a string of convictions for violent crimes against Arabs. Another of the sanctioned individuals, Elisha Yered, is suspected of being involved in the killing of a Palestinian teenager.
The government also sanctioned pro-settlement religious group Hilltop Youth, along with its leader, Meir Ettinger.
Senator Wong said: "We call on Israel to hold perpetrators of settler violence to account and to cease its ongoing settlement activity, which only inflames tensions and further undermines stability and prospects for a twostate solution."
The sanctions were imposed under Australia's Magnitsky sanctions framework, which is modelled on US laws named after slain Russian accountant Sergei Magnitsky. Australia has previously used Magnitsky sanctions to target human rights abusers from Russia, Iran and Myanmar. But it is yet to use the framework to target any Chinese nationals involved in human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet or Hong Kong, or use cyber provisions in the laws to punish Chinese hackers.
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson condemned settler violence, and reaffirmed the opposition's support for a two-state solution.
But he said the government's decision to sanction the Israelis stood in contrast to its refusal to use the Magnitsky sanctions framework to take a stand against Chinese wrongdoers.
"The Albanese government should explain why in two years they have not joined any of our like-minded partners, including the US, UK, Canada and the European Union, in any sanction on a Chinese government official for serious human rights abuses in Xinjiang nor any of the repeated cyber attacks on our democratic institutions, government departments or critical infrastructure," he said.
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said the government's focus on Israeli settlements as an obstacle to peace was "misplaced, and part of a wider pattern of false moral equivalence".
