Israel now faces 138 sanctions across 63 countries

Fifteen years ago, then Defence Minister Ehud Barak warned that Israel faced “a diplomatic tsunami, of which most of the public is not aware”. Speaking in 2011, he argued that international recognition of Palestinian statehood would intensify pressure unless Israel reached a compromise with the Palestinians.

For more than a decade, his warning appeared misplaced. Palestinian recognition remained largely symbolic, settlements expanded, and the occupation deepened. Benjamin Netanyahu presented Israel’s ability to withstand international criticism as evidence of his diplomatic skill.

The devastating war in Gaza that followed the October 7 massacre has changed that equation. The International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, alongside the genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, form part of a much wider deterioration in Israel’s international standing.

The tsunami is here. Its effects may remain barely visible in many Israelis’ daily lives, but that does not make the accumulating diplomatic, commercial and institutional restrictions insignificant. A new database from the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) makes their breadth increasingly difficult to dismiss.

While new sanctions peaked in 2024 and have declined since, the total number in effect has never been higher, with the JPPI recording 138 measures. Most are targeted sanctions against West Bank settlements, extremist organisations or individual settlers, but there are also academic boycotts, diplomatic measures and limits on imports from Israel proper.