The Morality of Small Means: Sanctioning Israel’s Ministers

They really ought to be doing more. But in the scheme of things, the sanctioning of Israeli’s frothily fanatical ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich by New Zealand, Canada, Norway, the United Kingdom and Australia is a reminder to the Israeli government that ethnic cleansing, mass killing and the destruction of a people will receive some comment. But a closer look at the trumpeted move does little to suggest anything in the way of change or deterrence, certainly not in Gaza, where the cataclysm continues without restraint.

According to the joint statement, both politicians “have incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights. Extremist rhetoric advocating the forced displacement of Palestinians and the creation of new Israeli settlements is appalling and dangerous.” The violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank had “led to the deaths of Palestinian civilians and the displacement of whole communities.”

The reasoning for the imposition of such sanctions tends to minimise Ben-Gvir and Smotrich’s zealous defence of programmatic and systematic displacement and removal of Palestinian existence in the Strip, despite the statement claiming that “this cannot be seen in isolation”. The statement fails to note the warnings from the International Court of Justice that Palestinians in Gaza face the risk of genocide, with a final decision pending on the matter.

Singling out individual members of the Netanyahu cabinet as the convenient lunatics and the devilishly possessed is a point of convenience rather than effect. It is true that, even by certain Israeli standards, a figure like Ben-Gvir is a bit too pungent, a convict of racist incitement, the procurer of assault rifles to West Bank settlers and an advocate for the full annexation of the territory. But identifying the villainous monsters conceals the broader villainous effort, and the Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong did as much in simply calling the two ministers “the most extreme proponents of the unlawful and violent Israeli settlement enterprise.”

The report of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, prefers to note the broader role played by such agents of power as the Israeli security forces, which it accuses of committing war crimes in directing attacks against the civilian population in Gaza, wilful killing and intentionally launching attacks that “would cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians”. Killing civilians seeking shelter in schools also implicated the forces “in the crime against humanity of extermination.” The canvas of responsibility, in other words, is panoramic and large.

Pity, then, that the latest expression of small means by these five powers does not extend to a complete halt to military cooperation, the selling of arms, or engagement across various fields of industry. That would have diminished the hypocrisy somewhat, something that the countries in question are unlikely to do. More’s the pity that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been spared this fit of moral clarity. When considered in substance, the two ministers face the sorts of restrictions that will be mildly bruising at best: travel bans and the freezing of assets.

The move by the Australian Labor government and its counterparts was, in the broader scheme of things, a modest one. It was also worth remembering that Canberra’s decision was made in sheepish fashion, with Wong previously stating that Australia would never unilaterally make such a move, as “going it alone gets us nowhere”. It was seen by Greens Senator Nick McKim as “far too little and far too late”. Sanctions were needed against the “Israeli industrial war machine.” On the other hand, Alex Ryvchin, co-chief of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry suggests that these measures can become a martyr’s tonic. “They have little support in Israel, but this is the sort of measure that will boost their notoriety and make them perhaps more popular”.

Looking ever the marionette in the show, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio flapped about in condemning the sanctions, which “do not advance US-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire, bring all hostages home and end the war.” Bereft of skills in argumentation, he could only warn US allies “not to forget who the real enemy is.”

The sanctions seemed to cause the condemned two less grief than Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who derided the decision as “outrageous”, “scandalous” and “unacceptable.” It was all part of “a planned and coordinated pressure campaign.” Ben-Gvir was almost smug with the attention and bursting with semitic pride. “We survived Pharoah, we will also survive [British Prime Minister] Keir Starmer,” he tooted in a statement.

Smotrich even seemed thrilled by the timing of it all, having been at the inauguration of a new Jewish settlement near the West Bank city of Hebron when he heard the news. “I heard Britain had decided to impose sanctions on me because I am thwarting the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he boasted. “There couldn’t be a better moment for this.”

One point is certainly true: the selective moves against the dastardly two leaves the murderous apparatus intact, and the IDF war machine undiminished. Most of all, it will do nothing to halt the construction of a single settlement or save a single Palestinian from dispossession.