Do Sanctions on Smotrich & Ben Gvir Undermine Democracy—or Defend It?
This week brings another question related to Israel, but fortunately not about war. Israeli politicians Betzalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir advocate policies related to Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank that many believe fundamentally violate human rights. Israeli voters chose them at the ballot box, and are free as well to vote them out at the next election if they disapprove. But what about foreign governments that want to register their protest? What tools, if any, can they use?
On June 10th, England, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Norway issued personal sanctions against Israeli ministers Smotrich and Ben Gvir. They say this is in response to the pair having, “incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights.”
There’s little doubt that Smotrich and Ben Gvir advocate for building settlements, permanent Israeli control over the West Bank, and military action in Gaza that is against international law. These five countries view these sanctions as the best way they have of protesting this. By putting personal travel and financial restrictions on Smotrich and Ben Gvir, they are able to make a statement that these two’s words and deeds are beyond the pale without taking measures against Israel as a whole.
However, there are at least two big problems.
Frist, Smotrich and Ben Gvir were democratically elected. Sanctions against them would seem to at the very least be interference in Israel’s internal affairs, and could even be considered an impingement on the fundamental right of Israeli citizens to freely elect their government. Respect for political rights means that countries have no choice but to accept the leaders that the citizens of other countries choose.
Countries accuse foreign governments of violating international law and human rights all the time. As an unrelated example, what do these same five European governments say about the leader of a country with the world’s largest economy that is also the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases (after China), who withdraws from the Paris Climate Accord and tries to roll back environmental regulations to undo progress towards renewable energy and thereby increase emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and other pollutants? And what if that same leader out of the blue imposes tariffs that upset global trade accords and are ruinous to global stability and many country’s economies? (Yes, I have someone in mind. . .)
That leader might own hotels and golf courses around the world that foreign governments could potentially seize via sanctions, but is that the right course of action? Or do even governments that vehemently oppose all this and earnestly believe these policies are quite literally destroying our planet still need to respect that this reflects the will of U.S. voters? Of course foreign governments can pursue international legal remedies and negotiate, but doesn’t governmental change have to come from the ballot box?
So too with Smotrich and Ben Gvir. Foreign governments are well within their rights to speak out against the policies these two advocate and threaten that if Smotrich or Ben Gvir gain further influence they will change their military, political, or economic positions towards Israel accordingly. And Israeli voters would be well advised to take this into account while making their choices. But if this pair is to be singled out for rebuke, wouldn’t Israeli voters have to be the ones to do the rebuking?
A second, more practical concern about these sanctions is to question their effect. Rather than induce Smotrich and Ben Gvir to change their ways, they seem to have done the opposite and rallied other Israeli political figures who feel that Israel’s democracy is under attack to their side. For example, before the war with Iran began, Smotrich seems to have already responded by retaliating against West Bank Palestinians. Even government ministers who oppose Smotrich and Ben Gvir have criticized the sanctions as unacceptable interference in Israel’s internal affairs. An article titled Now They’re Targeting Jewish Politicians by Joshua Hoffman on his popular Future of Jewish Substack gives a sense of the outrage and indignation with which many Israelis are likely to react.
So the question becomes, what can a country do to protest foreign leaders who advocate for flagrant violations of human rights? Personal sanctions are attractive because they can be imposed against specific individuals and not a country as a whole. But personal sanctions against leaders also seem to be an affront to the democratic rights of the public that voted for them, and do not seem likely to have the desired effect. So what’s the solution? Governments could always issue statements opposing Smotrich and Ben Gvir without taking action, but the whole reason for the sanctions is that in light of the current situation in the West Bank and Gaza words alone don’t seem strong enough. Please comment below to share your thoughts.
These two are the pivot point for the triggering of the West and for the ensuring of the good of Israel.
Smotrich has not signed off on the legitimization papers for the PA to continue operating as a parasite on the Israeli banking system thus de legitimizing them, the idea was discussed under senile Joe but the punitive measures of the demorrhoids averted that strategy at that time, the plo should have been experiencing hard consequences since the first infraction of Oslo decades ago.
Playing nice is how we got to October 7th.
planning strategy to ensure the nation of Israel stays Jewish and strong.
If a international law existed for malpractice Israel ought to be suing many nations.
Fun fact though it wasn't a sanction, in 56 when England recruited France and Israel to take on Nasser after he nationalized British assets and the three armies successfully took Sinai. Like surprised many with the announcement that he would crash the British pound if troops weren't withdrawn.
Ben Gurion had the sense to get it on paper as the British didn't want to commit, in the end the Israelis were somewhat stranded in Sinai after that accomplishment.
Imagine if that had been kept in Israel hands since then?
With allies like that that will sanction an elected official🧟♀️
I have several thoughts. First, it’s not unusual to sanction foreign officials. The U.S. has sanctioned some 12,000 individuals, some of whom are public officials, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and members of his government involved in the war on Ukraine.
Certainly the U.S. would say most if not all of the sanctioned officials are from authoritarian nations. But Russia and many other authoritarian nations still hold elections. Some scholars argue the current administration in both the U.S. and Israel are moving toward authoritarianism even though elections are still held.
Finally, I don’t think it’s accurate that Israeli voters picked these guys and can vote them out. They are elected Knesset members, but people could only vote for parties. These two were on the lists of minor parties that won a minority of the popular vote but wound up in the cabinet as part of a coalition deal. Nobody voted them into their current positions and nobody can directly vote them out of those jobs. So it seems a stretch to say these sanctions threaten democracy.