Australia sanctions Israeli settlers over attacks against Palestinians

Australia has imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on seven Israeli settlers and a youth group over their involvement in violent attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced the sanctions while condemning the settlers and the organization for their involvement in severe assaults, which included beatings, sexual assault, and torture of Palestinians, all of which resulted in either serious injuries or deaths.

Wong also went on to denounce Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine, underlining that their establishment was illegal under international law and was obstructing “peace” in the region.

She urged the Israeli government to recognize the importance of its international standing and legitimacy and to hold perpetrators of settler violence accountable.

The sanctions target Hilltop Youth, a radical group known for violent acts against Palestinians and their villages in the West Bank. The EU has similarly described the group in its sanctions.

Wong called for an end to ongoing settlement activity, which she said inflamed tensions and undermined stability and prospects for a “two-state solution.”

‘Israel’ usurping Palestinian land

The largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in more than three decades was approved by “Israel” just on July 3.

The approved seizure involves 12.7 square kilometers (nearly 5 square miles) of land in the Jordan Valley. This, according to the group’s research, constitutes the largest single seizure approved since the 1993 Oslo Accords

Following the seizure of 8 square kilometers (about 3 square miles) of land in the occupied West Bank in March and 2.6 square kilometers (1 square mile) in February, today’s land seizure was approved late last month but was only made public on Wednesday.

The contiguous settlements are situated northeast of Ramallah, and the occupation has classified them as “state lands”, meaning that Palestinians cannot own them and they can only be leased to Israelis.

This follows on the heels of a recent UN international court advisory opinion that ordered the Israeli occupation to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories rapidly and make reparations for internationally wrongful acts.

Canberra did not rule out rolling out further sanctions against settlers over their behavior as it expressed increasing alarm at that of the Israeli government.

Escalating violence

The sanctions, under Australia’s Autonomous Sanctions Regulations 2011, enable the foreign affairs minister to impose financial and travel restrictions on individuals or groups engaged in serious human rights violations. Some of the sanctioned individuals had previously faced similar measures from the EU, the United States, and Canada.

In May, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank reported an increase in land theft by armed Israeli settlers who are setting up temporary shepherding outposts and refusing to leave the region.

Shepherds living in the occupied West Bank and Jordan Valley face numerous issues like their sheep being confined to enclosures. At the same time, the adjacent grazing field is unavailable owing to violent settlers who have taken over the region, the Israeli daily Haaretz said.

Human rights groups have stated that Israeli settlers in shepherding outposts are armed and have employed attack dogs to intimidate Palestinians, resulting in cattle deaths and property damage. To make matters worse, the expensive cost of food deprives these shepherds of their primary source of life.