LONDON: Former UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron has said he planned to sanction “extremist” Israeli ministers, including asset freezes and travel bans.
Cameron, who served as foreign secretary to former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak until July, told the BBC that he had been “working up” plans to sanction Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir when Sunak called a general election, which his Conservative Party lost.
Cameron urged the UK’s new Labour government to follow through with sanctions to tell Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that his government’s conduct “is not good enough and has to stop.”
Cameron told the BBC’s “Today” program that Ben-Gvir and Smotrich “said things like encouraging people to stop aid convoys going into Gaza — they have encouraged extreme settlers in the West Bank with the appalling things they’ve been carrying out.”
Ben-Gvir had also claimed it was “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza, and has called for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land to “make the desert bloom,” Cameron said, adding that sanctioning them would let Netanyahu know that “when (you have) ministers in your government who are extremists and behave in this way, we are prepared to use our sanctions regime.”
Cameron said the plans to sanction the pair did not proceed as it would have been “too much of a political act” for a government entering an election.
Sources in Whitehall told the BBC that the plans were “well advanced” and “ready to go,” but there were suggestions that the move could have inflamed tensions in the UK and that the US opposed sanctioning Smotrich and Ben-Gvir.
David Lammy, the UK’s current foreign secretary, has since described the duo’s rhetoric as “entirely unacceptable,” adding: “We’re very worried about escalatory behavior, about inflamed tensions.”
On the subject of sanctions, he said: “I’m absolutely clear, if we have to act, we’ll act. I’m in discussions with G7 partners, particularly European partners, on that. I’m not announcing further sanctions today but that’s kept under close review.”
Since entering office, Lammy has ordered a review into UK arms sale licenses to Israel, which led to the suspension of 30 export licenses over concerns that the equipment would be used to break international law — a move Cameron opposed.
The government also ended its opposition to the issuing of arrest warrants for prominent Israeli politicians, including Netanyahu, by the International Criminal Court.
Cameron warned that arms export bans could hinder Israel’s ability to defend itself against Iran and Hezbollah.
“I thought the government made a mistake over the arms embargo because, fundamentally, if you’re … helping to protect Israel from a state-on-state attack by Iran, but at the same time you’re withholding the export of weapons, that policy makes no sense.”
He told the BBC: “There were other things we could do to put pressure on Netanyahu and say, ‘Of course we respect your right to self-defense but we do want you to act within the law.’”
Cameron added: “We all want this conflict to end, but it has to end in a way that’s sustainable so that it doesn’t restart. That’s why it’s right to back Israel’s right of self-defense.
“But it’s not a blank check, it’s not unconditional. We do want to see aid get through to Gaza, and we do want the role of the UN in Lebanon to be respected.”
Tom Keatinge, founding director of the Centre for Finance and Security at the Royal United Services Institute, told the BBC that sanctioning Smotrich and Ben-Gvir would send a “major political message” to the Israeli government.
Keatinge said there is no precedent for Britain sanctioning politicians of an allied nation, and it would lead to “practical issues” given that other UK allies are not in agreement on the stance.
