Last week, the EU and US announced new sanctions targeting Israeli settler entities alongside violent individuals. By imposing asset freezes on organisations – specifically Lehava and Hilltop Youth – and non-profit funds which raised money to support previously sanctioned settlers – Mount Hebron Fund and Shlom Asiraich – western governments have taken a step toward addressing the broader structures of the settler movement rather than taking on individuals one at a time.
On the surface, these asset freezes seem to indicate a firmer international commitment to ending the settlement movement. However, these measures are not aimed at truly dismantling the financial underpinnings of the settler undertaking. Instead, they operate as social deterrents, intended to shame Israel and its settlers to a return to the pre-7 October status quo, one of daily violence against Palestinians, without any outrage from foreign allies. These sanctions address neither the root cause behind Israel’s programme of Palestinian death and dispossession, nor the sanctioning countries own complicity in genocide and ethnic cleansing. ….more