Previous government planned sanctions against Israeli ministers – Cameron

The previous government was preparing to sanction two Israeli ministers over comments encouraging blocking aid to Gaza, Lord David Cameron has said.

Lord Cameron told the BBC on Tuesday that he had been “working up” sanctions against Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir during his final days as foreign secretary.

He described the two men as “extremists” and argued that sanctions would have been a way of putting “pressure” on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to act in line with international law.

Lord Cameron said: “When you look at what they say, they have 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 have been carrying out.”

Asked why the sanctions had not been imposed, Lord Cameron said he had been advised the move would have been too “political” during an election.

Mr Smotrich was recently criticised for appearing to suggest it might be “just and moral” to withhold food aid from Gaza, while Mr Ben-Gvir has backed the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank.

The current Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, has also condemned both men but declined to commit to sanctioning them when urged to do so during a Commons debate last month.

He did, however, suggest that sanctions relating to settler violence in the West Bank would be “kept under close review” during this year’s Labour Party conference.

Lord Cameron urged the Government to “look again at the sanctions issue”, arguing that his was a better way of pressuring Mr Netanyahu than suspending arms exports to Israel.

He said: “I thought the Government made a mistake over the arms embargo because, fundamentally, if you are, on the one hand, protecting, helping to protect Israel from a state-on-state attack by Iran, but at the same time you are withholding the export of weapons, that policy makes no sense.”

Arguing that it was “right to back Israel’s right to self-defence”, he said that support was not “unconditional” and the Government should be prepared to use its sanctions regime against “extremist” ministers “to say this is not good enough and has to stop”.

In February, the Conservative government did sanction four “extremist” Israeli settlers accused of attacking Palestinians in the West Bank.

A Foreign Office spokesperson declined to comment on whether it would sanction the two ministers, saying: “The UK strongly condemns settler violence and inciteful remarks such as those made by Israel’s National Security Minister Ben-Gvir, which threaten the status-quo of the Holy Sites in Jerusalem.

“We do not comment on future sanctions designations.”

Downing Street also declined to comment on the possibility of sanctions, but said the Government would “continue to take action to challenge those who undermine a two-state solution”.

Foreign Office minister Anneliese Dodds declined to be drawn on Lord Cameron’s remarks when challenged in the Commons during an urgent question on Gaza and Lebanon.

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Calum Miller said the Government should enact the measures against the two Israeli ministers, saying: “No-one can be left unmoved by the level of human suffering we have seen recently on our screens. We need immediate ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon more than ever.

“Does the minister agree that now is the time to use our sanctions regime against the extremist ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich?”

Mr Miller also called for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to be proscribed.

Ms Dodds said: “(Mr Miller) talked about those who have expressed views which are inflammatory or even worse than that, remarks which are appallingly discriminatory, the UK Government has been wholehearted in its condemnation of those remarks.

“He asked about sanctions specifically, of course the UK will always keep our sanctions regime closely under review, as he would expect, and we will announce any changes to the House.”

Labour MP Rachael Maskell (York Central) asked what the Government has done in the last three months following Lord Cameron’s preparatory work, adding: “And also if the Government has commenced looking at work to sanction the Israeli prime minister for his contribution to these war crimes?”