SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
occupation
Palestine Defenders Say Western Nations' New Sanctions on Israeli Settlers 'Not Enough'
"These are tiny and piecemeal steps which will not prevent Israel from continuing to act with impunity in its genocide and crimes against the Palestinian people," said one group.
Jun 09, 2026
While some advocates for Palestinian rights welcomed Tuesday's joint announcement by a group of Western nations of new sanctions targeting "extremist" Israeli settlers amid their escalating ethnic cleansing efforts in the illegally occupied West Bank, many others called the measures inadequate and urged stronger action against Israel's government for enabling settler violence.
The foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, France, Norway, and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement announcing "coordinated action to introduce sanctions and other measures to hold extremist settlers accountable for the horrific levels of settler violence against Palestinian civilians."
France joined the other four nations and New Zealand—which is coordinating sanctions with the group—in banning Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who seeks to annex the West Bank and Gaza and lives in the illegal settlement of Kedumim, from entering their countries. Members of the coalition also slapped an entry ban on four leaders of settler organizations and 21 individual settlers.
"We are today imposing new sanctions against those responsible for intensifying colonization and violence in the West Bank," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on social media. "Smotrich actively promotes the annexation of the West Bank, which he openly claims, the creation of new settlements in the West Bank, the recolonization of Gaza, the economic collapse of the Palestinian Authority, and its deleterious consequences on the Palestinian population."
British Foreign Minister Yvette Cooper said Tuesday during a speech in Parliament that “settler expansion and violence is illegal and a fundamental threat to the viability of a two-state solution, and to long-term peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis.”
"I have strengthened our business risk guidance to make it clear and unambiguous: If you are a British citizen or business, you should not conduct any economic and financial activities in illegal Israeli settlements,” Cooper added.
Coalition countries previously banned Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir from entry. The International Criminal Court in The Hague has reportedly requested arrest warrants for Smotrich and Ben-Gvir for the crime of apartheid related to their plans, backed by the Trump administration in the United States, to expand illegal settler colonies in the West Bank and annex the occupied territory. The ICC issued warrants in 2024 for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza.
"Extremist violent settlers, with the backing of their supporters, continue to attack Palestinians and abuse their human rights," Tuesday's announcement states. "They use violence to displace Palestinians, destroy property, and perpetuate the illegal settlement enterprise, undermining the viability of the state of Palestine and the prospects for peaceful coexistence."
"For too long, violent settlers have been able to act with near impunity, and settlement expansion and creation of outposts continue with the support and facilitation of the government of Israel," the ministers said. "In some cases, settler violence takes place under the protection of Israel’s security forces. We continue to urge the government of Israel to take action to ensure meaningful accountability for violence in the West Bank."
The statement noted that the five countries "have all taken the historic decision to recognize the state of Palestine, reflecting the rights of the Palestinian people and as part of our common efforts to protect the viability of the two-state solution."
"Today, we are acting together again in support of the same objectives," the ministers asserted. "We stand ready to take more action if the government of Israel does not take urgent steps to address the situation on the ground."
Many Palestinians and their advocates said the sanctions don't go far enough.
“While this is a step in the right direction, it is woefully inadequate," Palestinian Ambassador to the UK Husam Zomlot said on social media. “We are beyond words of condemnation. Israel has demonstrated, time and again, its disregard for international law."
"Words without action are not diplomacy. It is abdicating responsibilities," Zomlot continued. “What is needed now is clear: a ban on settlement products, comprehensive sanctions on those profiting from illegal settlements and the state sponsoring them, and guarantees that British companies, banks, and financial institutions are not contributing to Israel’s illegal occupation.“
"Justice cannot wait," the ambassador added. "The time for meaningful action is now.”
Amnesty International UK crisis response manager Kristyan Benedict called the new sanctions "a step, but not enough."
"If ministers are serious about sanctioning those 'who support and sponsor violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank', they must act on the reality that settlements and settler violence are state policy—directed and funded from the top," Benedict argued.
“Targeting settler financing networks while the ministers who run this campaign face no consequences is not meaningful accountability—it leaves the architects untouched," he stressed, calling on the UK government to also sanction Netanyahu, Gallant, current Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, and Settlement Minister Orit Strock.
“The legal obligation is clear, but the political will is still not strong enough," Benedict added. "Successive UK governments have failed to take meaningful action to stop Israel's crimes and those that enable them. That failure sends a dangerous message that Palestinian lives are not valued and that unlawful occupation and apartheid are acceptable. This must end now.”
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign said in a statement that "whilst any move towards additional sanctions is correct, these are tiny and piecemeal steps which will not prevent Israel from continuing to act with impunity in its genocide and crimes against the Palestinian people."
"In addition to these limited sanctions, the government has announced that it will ‘firmly advise’ British businesses against illegal activity, sending the disgraceful message that acting according to international law is optional," PSC added.
This week, around 140 Labour members of UK Parliament urged Cooper to take “urgent, concrete action to counter the escalation of violations against Palestinians” by “ending trade with illegal Israeli settlements.”
Adil Haque, executive editor at Just Security and distinguished professor at Rutgers Law School in New Jersey, said on X: "Better something than nothing, but if the aim is the removal of *all* illegal settlements, then targeted sanctions against a few groups and individuals will not do much."
Iranian-Canadian journalist Samira Mohyeddin replied to a social media post from Canadian Foreign Minister Anita Anand saying her country's government "continues to oppose the expansion of settlements," asking, "How?"
"How do you oppose them? Sanction ISRAEL," Mohyeddin asserted. "Those supporting the settlers are the Israeli state. Those who are arming them are the Israeli state. And it is Canadian Zionist charities that are funding them."
Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the country's government "firmly rejects the disgraceful measures adopted by foreign governments against Israeli citizens, entities, and a government minister," accusing the six nations of attempting to “impose a political stance regarding the right of Jews to settle in the Land of Israel and concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—camouflaged as measures against violence.”
The ministry also blasted what it called the countries' "resounding failure" to "combat the antisemitism that is rampant in their own countries,” adding that “anti-Israeli policies of the kind adopted today only serve to fuel that antisemitism.”
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice—where Israel is currently facing a genocide case related to the Gaza war, which has left more than 250,000 Palestinians dead or wounded—found the occupation of Palestine to be an illegal form of apartheid that must be ended as soon as possible. The ICJ also ruled that Israeli settler colonization of the West Bank amounts to annexation, also a crime under international law.
Efforts by the Israeli government, military, and settlers to expand West Bank settlement activity have accelerated dramatically since the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023. With the world's attention focused on Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza, Israeli soldiers and settlers have ramped up the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the occupied territory.
Attacks on West Bank Palestinians, including pogroms carried out by mobs of settlers protected and sometimes joined by Israeli troops, have killed at least 1,098 Palestinians between October 7, 2023 and May 18, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. At least 240 of the slain victims were children.
Israeli settlers frequently attack Palestinian homes, businesses, and farms, and other critical infrastructure. The attackers burn homes, destroy crops, kill or steal livestock, and sometimes forcibly expel residents. Journalists who document the assaults and international activists trying to protect locals from the rampaging assailants have also been attacked.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Day of Ordinary Terror': Israeli Attack on West Bank School Kills Man, Child
"It does feel like if a group of Palestinians with machine guns broke into an Israeli school and shot a bunch of children, it would be breaking news in every outlet on Earth," said one reporter.
Apr 21, 2026
Israeli soldiers and settlers opened fire on a school in a West Bank village Tuesday, killing a Palestinian man and child and wounding at least four other people amid their escalating ethnic cleansing efforts in the illegally occupied territory.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health and Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said settlers attacked a school in the village of al-Mughayyir, east of Ramallah, on Tuesday morning.
Amin Abu Ulaya, head of the local council, told Reuters that settlers and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers entered the village and then shot at students at the school and other Palestinians who rushed to the scene.
PRCS said that 14-year-old Aws Hamdi Al-Naasan and 32-year-old Marzouq Abu Naim were shot and killed by the attackers.
An IDF spokesperson claimed that troops were deployed to the area following reports of stones being thrown at a military vehicle, and that a reservist then opened fire at "suspects."
The IDF also said the reservist, who has not been identified, has been suspended pending an investigation. Most Israelis who harm Palestinians are never punished. Meanwhile, Israel last month passed legislation legalizing the hanging of terrorists convicted killing of Israelis—a law critics contend will not apply to Israelis who commit similar crimes against Palestinians.
Kathem Al-Haj-Ahmed, a 57-year-old al-Mughayyir resident, told Reuters on Tuesday that settlers arrived first and began attacking the school. Parents and others who came to pick up their children came under fire. Al-Haj-Ahmed said that's when the man and child were killed.
Drop Site News reported:
A paramedic at the scene said at least three settlers deliberately fired at children attempting to escape from classrooms from a position approximately 50 meters away, with a level of accuracy he described as close to sniping. An eyewitness said shooting was directed at classroom windows and balconies still full of children as residents attempted to evacuate the school by crawling.
Israeli forces arrived during the attack and, according to witnesses, provided protection to the settlers rather than stopping them. A 63-year-old man, Attallah Abu Aliya, said he was shot in the leg by an Israeli soldier without warning as he walked toward the school after hearing it was under attack.
IDF troops often protect, and sometimes join, settlers attacking Palestinians.
Another 14-year-old, Mohammed Naasan, was killed by IDF troops in al-Mughayyir in January. The slain boy's father was also killed by settlers in 2019.
Tuesday's shooting occurred about 15 miles from where a Palestinian family—a mother, father, and two young children—were massacred by Israeli troops while traveling in their car in Tammum in March. The two children, ages 7 and 5, were shot in the head; two of their siblings were wounded but survived.
Two other West Bank Palestinians died Tuesday as a result of encounters with Israelis. Sixteen-year-old Mohammad Majdi al-Jaabir of Hebron was struck and killed by a vehicle in a convoy sent to secure Israeli Settlement Minister Orit Strock, while a woman, 49-year-old Raja' Fadl Bitawi, succumbed to injuries sustained from Israeli army gunfire in Jenin nearly two years ago, according to local media reports.
"This is our reality in al-Mughayyir village; they aim to displace us, and both the army and the settlers are exchanging roles among them," Al-Haj-Ahmed said.
Both Israel’s occupation of Palestine and the colonization of Palestinian lands by Jewish settlers are illegal under international law. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that an “occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice—where Israel is currently facing a genocide case related to the Gaza war, which has left more than 250,000 Palestinians dead or wounded—found the occupation of Palestine to be an illegal form of apartheid that must be ended as soon as possible. The ICJ also ruled that Israeli settler colonization of the West Bank amounts to annexation, also a crime under international law.
As the world’s attention focused on Gaza after the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack and, later, the US-Israeli war on Iran and Israel's assault on Lebanon, Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 1,079 Palestinians—at least 235 of them children—in the West Bank, according to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.
Numerous US citizens—most but not all of them Palestinians—have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in recent years.
Settler pogroms have been compared to the Nakba, during which more than 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed to make way for the modern state of Israel.
On Monday, the West Bank Protection Consortium—which is led by the Norwegian Refugee Council and funded by donors including 13 European nations—published a report detailing sexual violence committed by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank. Crimes including sexual assaults have facilitated Israel's ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
Keep ReadingShow Less
House Dems Unveil Bill to Prohibit Taxpayer Funding for Trump Occupation, Plunder of Venezuela
"The American people want affordable healthcare, not to spend billions or more on ‘running’ Venezuela," said US Rep. Joaquin Castro.
Jan 08, 2026
A pair of House Democrats on Thursday introduced legislation that would prohibit the Trump administration from using any taxpayer funding to control Venezuela or exploit its vast oil reserves, an effort launched after the US president said he expects his illegal plunder operation in the South American country to last years.
The new bill, titled the No Occupation of Venezuela (NOVA) Act of 2026, would bar "any federal funds from being used to support US possession, supervision, jurisdiction, or control over Venezuelan territory or resources, whether through military or civilian means," according to a summary released by Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) and Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), the measure's lead sponsors.
The legislation would also prevent "taxpayer dollars from being used to subsidize, reimburse, or otherwise support oil company expansion, reconstruction, or resource control in Venezuela" and halt any effort by the White House to shift "from military action to civilian governance or economic administration without explicit congressional authorization."
“The American people want affordable healthcare, not to spend billions or more on ‘running’ Venezuela,” Castro said in a statement. “The NOVA Act would block the president from occupying Venezuela and prevent him from enriching himself, his cronies, and oil companies in the process.”
The Democratic lawmakers unveiled their legislation a day after the US Department of Energy released a document outlining, with few specific details, how the Trump administration intends to exploit Venezuela's oil with the help of American fossil fuel corporations.
The document states that the US government "has begun marketing Venezuelan crude oil in the global marketplace for the benefit of the United States, Venezuela, and our allies."
"All proceeds from the sale of Venezuelan crude oil and oil products will first settle in US-controlled accounts at globally recognized banks to guarantee the legitimacy and integrity of the ultimate distribution of proceeds," the fact sheet continues.
"At a time when families are stretching every dollar for groceries, housing, and healthcare, American taxpayers should not be forced to bankroll an overseas occupation or subsidize Big Oil’s return to Venezuela at Donald Trump’s direction."
Trump has repeatedly suggested that US taxpayers could "reimburse" oil companies that agree to invest in Venezuela in the wake of the administration's illegal assault on the country and abduction of its president, Nicolás Maduro. The president is set to meet with the top executives of major US oil companies at the White House on Friday.
"We will rebuild it in a very profitable way,” Trump said of Venezuela's oil infrastructure in an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday. “We’re going to be using oil, and we’re going to be taking oil."
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that the Trump administration is "about to execute on a deal to take all the oil." Venezuela's state oil company, PDVSA, said Wednesday that it was in active negotiations with the Trump administration, but did not say a deal was in place.
The Trump administration's military campaign against Venezuela directly and its massive buildup of forces in the Caribbean have already cost US taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Fortune reported Thursday that the administration's ongoing naval blockade against Venezuelan oil tankers has cost "an estimated $700 million and counting," while the Center for American Progress noted earlier this week that US military deployments to the Caribbean have cost upwards of $600 million.
“At a time when families are stretching every dollar for groceries, housing, and healthcare, American taxpayers should not be forced to bankroll an overseas occupation or subsidize Big Oil’s return to Venezuela at Donald Trump’s direction,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement Thursday. “The NOVA Act draws a clear line: No president gets to spend Americans’ money on foreign occupations or oil deals without Congress—and without the consent of the American people.”
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular