Foreign Affairs Anita Anand at Question Period in May. Ms. Anand said the sanctions are in response to a recent escalation of violence by 'extremist settlers.'Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press
Canada announced a fifth round of sanctions aimed at what it said are groups and individuals responsible for financing, enabling and carrying out settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Those targeted are two Israeli settlers whose construction company builds settlement infrastructure, as well as five organizations, including Nachala, a hard-line Jewish group that promotes the establishment of new outposts in the West Bank.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand, who announced the sanctions Tuesday, said they are in response to a recent escalation of violence by what the government described as “extremist settlers” and their affiliates against Palestinian civilians and their property in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
“Settlers” is a collective term for Jewish Israelis who live in the territories − the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights − that Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Much of the world, including Canada, considers the Jewish settlements built beyond Israel’s recognized borders to be illegal.
The Department of Global Affairs said in a Tuesday statement that the measures were taken in co-ordination with Britain, France, Australia and Norway. The sanctions were designed to censure and disrupt those “supporting, providing funding for or contributing to the use or attempted use of violence by extremist settlers against Palestinian civilians or their property,” the statement said.
Global Affairs said those targeted by the sanctions are barred from entering Canada. Canadians are prohibited from “entering into transactions with, providing services to, transferring property to, or otherwise making goods available to” any people or groups listed.
“Extremist settler violence is further destabilizing the West Bank, driving the forced displacement of Palestinian communities and undermining the viability of a two-state solution, as well as broader regional peace and security,” the statement said.
One of the individuals targeted Tuesday was Harel David Libi, owner of Libi Construction and Infrastructure, a company that has built settlement infrastructure in the West Bank. The other was Eliav Libi, director of the same company.
The organizations targeted include Nachala, Libi Construction and Infrastructure, Micha’s Farm, Coco’s Farm and pro-settler organization Regavim, also known as the Regavim Movement, the Canadian government said.
Israel’s embassy in Canada declined comment, but the Israeli government sharply criticized the sanctions imposed by Western countries in a social media post.
“The real essence of these steps is the attempt to impose a political stance regarding the right of Jews to live in the Land of Israel and concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – camouflaged as measures against violence,” the post said.
With a report from Mark MacKinnon