Ben Gvir and Smotrich are a real threat to Palestinian existence

With power and influence as Minister of National Security and Minister of Finance, Ben Gvir and Smotrich intensify attacks and violate rights; sanctions may be the only answer

David Cameron has a brilliant mind, a remarkable ability to master briefs and excellent presentation skills. However, he is destined to be remembered as the worst British Foreign Secretary since the Second World War – and that for a wide margin. Morally, it is the worst; I am tried to use the term depraved.

When the former prime minister Rishi Sunak appointed him Secretary of Foreign Affairs last November, the tragic turn of events it was already visible to everyone. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already triggered its killing machine in Gaza.

Netanyahu had also made his intentions clear by citing the biblical narrative of Amalekwith the terrifying instruction of annihilate men, women and children.

From the moment Cameron took over the Foreign Office, he was responsible for enable, facilitate and support which, even last November, many feared was turning into a genocide.

Before growing evidence of Israeli war crimes, he resisted pressure to halt the weapons sales. He ordered the suspension of aid from British donors has UNRWAthe UN agency for Palestinian refugees, based on a fragile dossier and without evidence presented by Israel, accusing the agency’s staff of being involved in the October 7 atrocities.

Cameron apparently made no attempt to independently assess Israeli allegations against UNRWA, the only organization capable of alleviate the lives of hungry Palestinians.

Reign of terror

Cameron dismantled the International Court of Justice amid the investigation into allegations of genocide by Israel. Perhaps worst of all, he did his utmost to block Karim Khanchief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, when he sought permission to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu, the Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and senior Hamas figures for war crimes.

The Palestinian lawyer Raji Sourani recently warned that Gaza was becoming “the cemetery of international law“, emphasizing that the West was “putting something precious at risk” by protecting Israel from the consequences of its actions. Historians will condemn Cameron.

But this week, he left retirement with a valid idea: “We will impose sanctions on Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.”

These two ministers, who effectively command the occupied West Bank, established a regime of terror that challenges so much basic humanity as the international law.

I am writing this article from city ​​of Nablusin the north of the West Bank, where effects of murderous policies by Ben Gvir and Smotrich are intensely felt.

To make a significant differenceLammy needs go after the brains behind the brutal and illegal takeover of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Nearly 10 kilometers south here it is Huwwarawhere Israeli settlers launched a racist pogrom at the beginning of last year. Smotrich responded by calling on Israel to “eliminate Huwwara completely“.

Last weekend I passed through Huwwara on my way to idyllic village of Beitasituated in the hills above.

Here, the evil influence by Ben Gvir is deeply felt. Residents are harassed by colonists of the newly built settlement of evyatar. A farmer, Mohammad Bassim Najjarreported that the situation has worsened since Ben Gvir visited Evyatar last June, with the minister of national security promising: “We have to colonize the land of Israel and, at the same time, we need to launch a military campaign, blow up buildings, assassinate terrorists. Not one, or two, but dozens, hundreds or, if necessary, thousands.”

Najjar has since told the Middle East Eye“the situation got much worse“. He stated that hundreds of settlersprotected by armed soldiers, surrounded your houseyelling: “We will kill your children”. They steal your animals, destroy their agricultural equipment and olive treese attack him and his children.

Distorted politics

Baitby the way, is where the American citizen Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was shot dead by a Israeli army sniper last month. I went to the roof from where the shooter fired the fatal shot and then walked more than 200 metros through rough terrain to the place where she was hit.

Having seen this, I believe that there is no way the murder was accidentalas the Israeli army claims; appears to have been a deliberate and cold-blooded murder.

Still, there was no repercussionsjust as there were no consequences when other unarmed Beita residents were killed by soldiers or settlers in recent years — and this is the same story in many other villages. The season of olive harvest is underway, and the usual reports of land seizures and attacks on farmers while they work continue to emerge.

Ben Gvir’s formal title is minister of national security; your true goal is expel Palestinians from their lands.

He is, in fact, a monster. The closest comparison in the UK with distorted and racist politics by Ben Gvir would be Tommy Robinsoncurrently under investigation for inciting race riots last summer.

Not UK, we would never consider electing Robinson for government, but Ben Gvir exercises many of the powers of a British Home Secretary.

He is the party leader Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) and a protector of the movement Storyteller – one violent and racist ideology which advocates the expulsion of Palestinians from their lands. He has already been convicted at least eight times (it’s hard to count) for crimes, including racial incitement and links to terrorism.

Sinister project

Ben Gvir first gained notoriety ago 30 yearsin a particularly frightening way. He threatened the then prime minister Yitzhak Rabin live on television shortly before his murder.

Recently, when Israeli police detained nine soldiers accused of sodomizing a Palestinian prisoner, Ben Gvir came out in defense of soldiers.

Smotrichleader of Religious Zionist Partyis undoubtedly even more sinister. Seven years ago, as an almost unknown parliamentarian, he published an article proposing “full Israeli sovereignty for the central regions of Judea and Samaria“, along with the establishment of “new cities and settlements deep into the territory, bringing hundreds of thousands of additional settlers to live there“.

This project discard any idea of a two-state solutionand it is illegal according to international law. Once your plan was published, it was easy dismiss Smotrich as a rebel. Now, how finance minister responsible for the civil administration of the occupied West Bank, he is in a position to put it into practice.

It’s all very well for Cameron to call for sanctions on Ben Gvir and Smotrich now. He had the chance to act when he was Secretary of Foreign Affairs.

Your successor, David Lammynow you have the opportunity to do or that Cameron, for laziness or cowardicefailed to do. To your credit, Lammy sanctioned this week a small number of settler organizations and outposts.

But, to make a real differenceLammy needs go after those responsible for the brutal and illegal takeover of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Text by Peter Oborne. He won Best Commentary/Blog in 2022 and 2017, and was also named Freelancer of the Year in 2016 at the Drum Online Media Awards for articles he wrote for Middle East Eye. He was named British Press Awards Columnist of the Year in 2013. He resigned as chief political columnist for the Daily Telegraph in 2015. His most recent book is The Fate of Abraham: Why the West is Wrong about Islam, published in May by Simon & Schuster. His previous books include The Triumph of the Political Class, The Rise of Political Lying, Why the West is Wrong about Nuclear Iran, and The Assault on Truth: Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and the Emergence of a New Moral Barbarism.