Labor ‘breaks taboo’ to sanction Israelis after months of pressure

Israelis involved in expanding territory inside occupied Palestinian areas will be penalised by Australia, hardening the government’s stance towards Israel and breaking what one MP called a long-held taboo against sanctioning figures from Australia’s partner in the Middle East.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced on Thursday seven Israeli individuals and one entity, a youth group called Hilltop Youth dedicated to establishing settler outposts in the West Bank, would have Magnitsky-style financial sanctions imposed on them.

Joining the US and UK in targeting Israeli settlers, Wong said the individuals had been involved in violent attacks on Palestinians, including beatings, sexual assault and torture, which resulted in serious injury and, in some cases, death.

“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,” Wong said in a statement.

Asked on ABC about the sanctions, Wong did not say if she expected push-back from Israel but said diplomats were informed before the sanctions were announced.

“[These] sanctions are a very substantial penalty that we’ll put in place. They’re obviously not the first thing we do when we look to implement our foreign policy. They are very significant,” she said, affirming her support for a ceasefire.

“We consider the situation in Gaza now is catastrophic. And we really, we are deeply, deeply worried and distressed by what we are seeing in Gaza in relation to the humanitarian situation.”

The move has come after months of claims from the Greens and sections of the Islamic community that Labor has not been sufficiently critical of Israel’s war effort, which Hamas health authorities say has killed about 40,000 people.

This masthead reported last week that Labor was gradually strengthening its admonishment of the Netanyahu government, with minimal or no pushback inside the cabinet when Wong suggested new policies that would provoke frustration from Jewish leaders in Australia.

The names of the Israelis subject to sanctions include Yinon Levi, Zvi Bar Yosef, Neria Ben Pazi, who have already been sanctioned by the US government.

Magnitsky laws – named after Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Moscow prison in 2009 – allow the government to revoke visas, ban travel and seize property from individuals who might try to hide assets in Australia.

Colin Rubenstein, of the Australia-Israel and Jewish Affairs Council, said Labor’s focus on settlements as an obstacle to a peaceful two-state solution was misplaced and “part of a wider pattern of false moral equivalence”.

“The settlements did not prevent Israel three times offering the Palestinians a state on generous terms, offers the Palestinians rejected absolutely,” he said in a statement.

“While Israel arrests and prosecutes those responsible for settler violence, the Palestinian Authority celebrates and financially rewards terrorism. The government should focus on countering the Palestinian rejectionism that has always been the major obstacle to a two-state peace.”

Labor MP Julian Hill, who has been campaigning for sanctions for months, said Wong’s move was a “very welcome step in the right direction, breaking a long-held taboo in Australia that somehow the behaviour of Israeli extremists, no matter how outrageous, would attract no consequences.”

“Of course there is more to be done by the international community to impose direct consequences on Israel’s government for the ongoing expansion of illegal settlements that prevent a Palestinian state, but this decision is significant.”

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