The Australian Government has imposed Magnitsky-style targeted financial sanctions and travel bans on seven Israeli individuals, and targeted financial sanctions on one entity, for involvement in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
The seven Israelis Australia has imposed Magnitsky-style targeted financial sanctions and travel bans on are Yinon Levi, Zvi Bar Yosef, Neria Ben Pazi, Elisha Yered, David Chai Chasdai, Einan Tanjil, and Meir Ettinger.
The individuals sanctioned 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 religious group Hilltop Youth that is responsible for inciting and perpetrating violence against Palestinian communities.
“Settlements in the West Bank are an impediment to a two-state solution, they are illegal in international law and the fact that there has been an expansion of settlements over this current period is something that the government has opposed”, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in Sydney on Thursday.
The sanctions are the first Australia has imposed on Israelis over settler violence in the West Bank.
“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”, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in her statement.
She said that 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 sanctions were imposed after careful consideration, and marked a substantial penalty, she told ABC Radio National’s AM program.
“Australia will continue to work for a just and enduring peace between Israelis and Palestinians”, she added.
