Australia sanctions Hilltop Youth, more international sanctions expected

Australians are forbidden from supporting West Bank settler organisation Hilltop Youth under new sanctions imposed by Foreign Minister Penny Wong.

Hilltop Youth is a hardline, religious-nationalist youth group that establishes outposts in the West Bank and has been involved in repeated attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank.

The sanctions also target seven settlers who have been involved in violence against Palestinians: Yinon Levi, Zvi Bar Yosef, Neria Ben Pazi, Elisha Yered, David Chai Chasdai, Einan Tanjil, and Meir Ettinger.

These individuals are banned from entering Australia under the Magnitsky-style sanctions, a system of sanctions that targets individuals guilty of serious human rights violations and abuses.

“The individuals sanctioned today have been involved in violent attacks on Palestinians. This includes beatings, sexual assault and torture of Palestinians resulting in serious injury and in some cases, death. The entity sanctioned is a youth group that is responsible for inciting and perpetrating violence against Palestinian communities,” said Wong.

“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 two-state solution.”

The move follow similar sanctions imposed by several other countries including the US, Canada and Japan.

Wong said the Albanese government has been firm and consistent that Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal under international law and a significant obstacle to peace.

The recent advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that declared the West Bank occupation illegal is expected to prompt more sanctions against Israel.  

Senior Israeli officials said they believed that countries that had already imposed sanctions – including the US, Britain, European Union, France and Canada – would order a new round. Other countries that until now have not acted are expected to impose their own sanctions.

"All the countries that have acted on this issue now plan to take additional steps that will be more severe than those we've seen in recent months," a top official involved in discussions on the issue told Haaretz. "The upcoming round of sanctions will be more painful than the earlier ones."

Axios has reported that US President Joe Biden is considering sanctions against Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leaders of the two far-right parties in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition. That would be an unprecedented step which would open a new level of pressure on Israel.

There is increasing evidence of the Israeli government’s support for settler outposts.

Documents uncovered by Peace Now show the Ministry of Settlements and National Mission provided 75 million shekels ($AU31.25 million) last year for security equipment for “young settlements” — the term it uses for unauthorised Jewish farms and outposts in the West Bank.

The money was quietly authorised in December while the country’s attention was focused on the war against Hamas in Gaza.

READ MORE

Human right sanctions in response to Israeli settler violence in the West Bank (DFAT)

Western powers set to tighten sanctions against Israeli settler groups after Hague opinion (Haaretz)

White House discussed sanctioning Israeli ministers over settler violence (Axios)

Israeli government quietly sends millions to unauthorized West Bank settler outposts (AP News)