Amnesty says UK sanctions leave ‘architects’ of West Bank occupiers' violence untouched

Amnesty International UK on Tuesday urged the British government to impose sanctions on senior Israeli officials, arguing that new measures announced earlier in the day fail to hold the "architects" of settler violence in the occupied West Bank accountable.

"Today's announcements are a step, but they are not enough," Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty International UK's crisis response manager, said in a statement after Britain and five other countries announced sanctions targeting networks "financing and enabling settler attacks" against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

He said that if the British government is serious about sanctioning those "who support and sponsor violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank," it must recognize that settlements and settler violence are "state policy-directed and funded from the top."

Earlier Tuesday, the UK, Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand and Norway announced sanctions in response to record settlement expansion and rising violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

"Targeting settler financing networks while the ministers who run this campaign face no consequences is not meaningful accountability-it leaves the architects untouched," Benedict said.

He added that the UK must sanction Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Settlement Affairs Minister Orit Strock, Defense Minister Israel Katz and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Netanyahu and Gallant are wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) under arrest warrants over "war crimes and crimes against humanity" in Gaza.

The rights group also called on the UK government to ban all trade with settlements and halt cooperation and investment ties that it said enable unlawful occupation and apartheid.

"The legal obligation is clear, but the political will is still not strong enough," he added.