New Zealand and Australia are placing new travel bans on three extremist Israeli settlers, aligning with the European Union in imposing similar sanctions on individuals and organizations responsible for supporting extremist settler activity in the West Bank.
“Australia has today imposed further Magnitsky-style human rights sanctions against three additional Israeli individuals and four additional entities in response to escalating settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank,” the Foreign Ministry stated Tuesday.
The decision, for the first time, targets farming outposts that serve as hubs for settler violence, the ministry added. The measures impose financial sanctions on individuals and entities and travel bans on the individuals, which the ministry said build on measures previously imposed alongside Canada, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom, which included Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
New Zealand pushed for a similar move, with Foreign Minister Winston Peters announcing travel bans “targeted at three individuals who have actively worked to expand illegal settlements in the West Bank, including through violence.”
The three people in question are Itamar Yehuda Levi, Harel David Libi, and Eliav Libi, who according to a statement by Peters on Monday, have committed actions that “threaten peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians and drive the region further into crisis.” Two of them are already sanctioned by the US State Department and the UK’s Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime.
This follows a political decision by the EU last month to push for a unanimous political action against Israeli settlers since the start of the war on Gaza. The measures were formally adopted on May 28, when the Council of the EU imposed additional sanctions on four organizations alongside their leaders, which it said were responsible for supporting extremist settler activity in the West Bank.
The measures, including travel bans and asset freezes, were adopted “under the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime in response to serious and systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians,” according to an EU press release.
The targets are three individuals: Daniella Weiss, Meir Deutsch, and Avichai Suissa, alongside four entities: the Nachala Settlement Movement, Regavim, Hashomer Yosh, and Amana, all involved in settler violence, settlement expansion, and activities linked to intimidation and displacement of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Nonetheless, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir were removed from the final list of targets while alleged leading Hamas figures have remained uncontested. The two far-right ministers, accused of inflammatory rhetoric and support for policies fueling settler violence and expansion, still face the prospect of EU sanctions.
Ben-Gvir in particular has recently come under fire amid global outrage over the forceful and abusive detentions of hundreds of international activists who took part in the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) this spring. The crisis prompted governments worldwide to summon Israeli ambassadors, including countries that had already banned the minister last year, such as Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.
Currently, EU countries are being asked to support a draft proposal on imposing sanctions on Israeli ministers involved in the flotilla saga, Politico reported on Monday.
“The European Council condemns the mistreatment of detainees following the interception of the [GSF] in international waters,” reads the draft obtained by Politico. “It invites the Council to take work forward on restrictive measures against extremist ministers inciting and promoting such human rights abuses.”
EU ambassadors will discuss the proposals on Wednesday in an attempt to reach unanimity, though the Czech Republic has vowed to block sanctions on Israeli ministers, ahead of a European Council meeting of EU leaders on 18–19 June, the report added.
This comes against a backdrop of mounting international concern over West Bank annexation. In February, 85 UN member states condemned Israel’s settlement policies in the occupied West Bank, while Smotrich vowed to advance plans that would push Palestinians out of the West Bank and Gaza.
