Months after they were promised, Ottawa still hasn't imposed sanctions on violent Israeli settlers

The Government of Canada has announced multiple rounds of sanctions against various parties in the Mid‐ dle East since October 7. On Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly an‐ nounced sanctions against Iran's minister of defence and its general staff.

On February 3, she an‐ nounced that Canada would impose sanctions on both leaders of Hamas involved in the October 7 massacre and extremist Israeli settlers in‐ volved in violent attacks on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank.

But there's an important difference between the sanc‐ tions announced against Palestinians and Iranians and the ones announced against Israelis - the ones against Is‐ raelis have not been gazetted and therefore never took ef‐ fect.

Joly was asked Friday af‐ ternoon why Global Affairs only proceeded with the sanctions against Palestini‐ ans.

"We will be imposing sanctions on Israeli settlers," she replied. "We've said it and we'll do it."

Asked for a timeline, she said only that "it will be com‐ ing."

At the time the sanctions against extremist settlers were announced, Joly said her officials were "actively working on it."

"Settler violence in the West Bank is absolutely un‐ acceptable and puts at risk peace [and] stability in the region, and the path toward the two-state solution that is absolutely essential," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at the time.

"We will be sanctioning extremist settlers and we will also bring new sanctions on Hamas leaders," Joly told CBC's Rosemary Barton Live. "I look forward to doing an‐ nouncements soon."

The sanctions against 11

Palestinians had been gazetted the day before and had already taken effect, but the sanctions against Israelis were not and never moved past the announcement stage.

Playing catch-up

Canada was already play‐ ing catch-up with allies when it announced the sanctions. The Biden administration had already imposed a visa ban on some violent settlers two months earlier, as had the U.K.

The Trudeau government did not follow suit, despite a written request from the NDP to do so.

On February 1, the U.S. followed up with its first fi‐ nancial sanctions on settlers "directing or participating in acts or threats of violence against civilians, intimidation of civilians to cause them to leave their homes, destruc‐ tion or seizure of property, or terrorist activity in the West Bank."

"Israel must do more to stop violence against civilians in the West Bank and hold accountable those responsi‐ ble for it," the U.S. State De‐ partment warned.

Six weeks later, the U.S. imposed further sanctions against individuals and two notoriously violent settle‐ ments known as Moshe's Farm and Zvi's Farm.

A week ago, U.S. President Joe Biden's administration went further by sanctioning two groups that raise funds for illegal settlements and settler leader Ben-Zion Gop‐ stein, leader of the so-called "anti-assimilation" Jewish su‐ premacist group Lehava.

Lehava adovcates against mixed marriages and social contact between Arabs and Jews, which it calls "the dan‐ gerous cancer of coexis‐ tence."

Gopstein, whose salary has at times been paid by the Government of Israel, has led campaigns to urge Israeli businesses to employ only Jews and has issued "kosher certificates" to those that do. It also seeks to shame Jewish landlords who rent space to Arab tenants.

Gopstein is a friend and close adviser to Israel's Na‐ tional Security Minister Ita‐ mar Ben Gvir, who also has acted as Gopstein's lawyer. The sanctions against him were seen by some as a warning to the Netanyahu government that its most radical members could be next.

Last Sunday, the sanctions led to Gopstein's credit card being rejected at an Israeli gas station.

Sanctions teeth

The American sanctions have been criticized by some, including former U.S. offi‐ cials, as weak and ineffectual. They were further weakened at the end of March when, according to the Israeli news‐ paper Israel Hayom, the State Department backed down in the face of a threat by Israeli Finance Minister (and West Bank settler) Beza‐ lel Smotrich to retaliate with actions against Palestinian banks.

"A great achievement for Israel," reported the paper. "The American folding comes in the wake of Finance Minis‐ ter Bezalel Smotrich's threat to collapse the Palestinian economy."

The U.S. decision to allow the sanctioned settlers to use their bank accounts put an end to the substantive part of the sanctions against them.

The Biden administration also let it be known this month that it is drawing up plans to reverse a Trump-era policy that allowed goods made in West Bank settle‐ ments to be labelled "Made in Israel."

The Trudeau government, meanwhile, has overruled the Canadian Food Inspec‐ lose their

tion Agency and has even gone to court to defend the right of Israeli settlements to label their products "Made in Israel."

Israel looks to legalize more settlements

Tensions between the U.S. and Israel over settlements seem likely to get worse as the Israeli cabinet weighs a demand by Smotrich to for‐ malize the status of 68 settle‐ ments built without autho‐ rization and currently consid‐ ered illegal by the Israeli gov‐ ernment.

Many of the outposts are merely plywood shacks placed on hilltops by a radical fringe of the settler move‐ ment closely associated with two key cabinet ministers: Smotrich and Ben Gvir.

Their purpose is to estab‐ lish facts on the ground that obstruct any move toward a two-state solution, and they often also serve to create a pretext for the IDF to declare security zones and confiscate Palestinian land around them.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel on Thursday described the proposal as "reckless and dangerous."

Ottawa has not com‐ mented on the proposal.

A steep escalation in at‐ tacks

The escalation in settler attacks, and in killings of Palestinians in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers and police, began several months before October 7, 2023 and dates back to the arrival in power of the current Netanyahu government the previous De‐ cember.

In order to form a coali‐ tion, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined with two extremist parties led by West Bank settlers Ben Gvir and Smotrich, who de‐ manded key offices in ex‐ change for their support.

The two men essentially control all Israeli operations in the West Bank except for those of the IDF, which is un‐ der Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. Smotrich demanded powers of decision and ap‐ pointment previously held by the defence minister.

The coalition agreement included the formation of a new Settlements Administra‐ tion under Smotrich's con‐ trol.

Former IDF chief Benny Gantz - a rival of Benjamin Netanyahu for the country's leadership - called the deal "a decision that will rip apart the chain of command, harm the security of Israeli citizens and our international stand‐ ing."

"May every Hebrew moth‐ er know that the fate of her son and our security has been forfeited to irresponsi‐ ble politicians," he warned.

Ben Gvir has also used his control of Israel's police and border police to assist set‐ tlers by helping them evade legal consequences and cre‐ ating a special police unit to arrest Israeli and internation‐ al rights activists who try to document attacks on Pales‐ tinians in the West Bank.

Last year was the dead‐ liest year for Palestinians in the West Bank in two decades, with over 500 killed, compared to 151 in 2022.

Since its arrival in office in 2015, the Trudeau govern‐ ment has consistently voted against the annual UN mo‐ tion that calls for the Fourth Geneva Convention to be up‐ held in the Occupied Territo‐ ries and for settlement con‐ struction to cease.

The Trudeau government also has written to the Inter‐ national Criminal Court at The Hague saying that Cana‐ da, as one of the nations funding the court, wants it to reject all cases brought against Israel by Palestinians. The last of those letters was sent on February 14, 2020 in response to a request from Netanyahu.

In July 2023, as Israeli set‐ tler violence reached a boil‐ ing point, the Trudeau gov‐ ernment also wrote to the In‐ ternational Court of Justice pressing it to refuse to issue "an advisory opinion on Is‐ raeli practices in the occu‐ pied territories," as re‐ quested by the UN General Assembly.

Canada's lawyers told the court it should reject the case because Israel did not recog‐ nize its jurisdiction, and be‐ cause "Canada is concerned that the issuance of an advi‐ sory opinion on Israeli prac‐ tices in the occupied territo‐ ries may contribute to a po‐ larization of positions."

The government also has allowed Israeli settlements to raise funds in Canada and claim Canadian tax refunds.