The National Jewish Assembly (NJA) condemns the UK government’s decision to impose sanctions on Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich as an act of blatant political theatre – designed not to advance peace or justice, but to appease the increasingly vocal anti-Israel forces within British public life.
This move reeks of inconsistency and selective moral outrage. The UK continues to maintain full diplomatic and trade relations with regimes that commit actual, systemic human rights abuses on a vast scale – from Iran to China, Qatar to Russia. But when it comes to the Jewish state, the threshold for sanctions is conspicuously lower.
Judea and Samaria is not “occupied” territory. It is the heartland of Jewish civilisation and homeland. Israel’s policies in these territories are subject to the same complex legal and security considerations faced by any democracy combating radical terror. The cynical attempt to single out Israeli ministers – elected members of a democratic government – while ignoring the appalling abuses of Hamas and its ilk, is an act of moral cowardice.
NJA Chairman Gary Mond said: “This is a pitiful display of inconsistency. Where are the sanctions on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards? On Qatar’s funding of terror? On the Taliban’s human rights abuses? Britain is sanctioning Israeli ministers to virtue-signal to the anti-Israel mob, not to uphold international law. The government would do better to focus its energy on combating radical Islamism and the extremist ideologies infecting our own streets – not hyper-fixating on Israeli leaders.”
As Hamas continues to brutalise its own civilians – including executing dissenters, persecuting journalists, and murdering Palestinians seeking food – one must ask why British leaders seem more concerned with punishing Israeli politicians than tackling the Islamist threat in our own midst.
The NJA calls on the UK government to cease this politically motivated targeting of Israel and to prioritise the urgent fight against radicalisation, anti-Western hatred, and the real forces undermining democratic values in Britain today.
