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The federal Liberals’ policy of joining allies in punishing Israel, without providing any constructive solutions for bringing peace to the Middle East, continued apace on Tuesday, when Foreign Minister Anita Anand, along with her counterparts from several European countries, issued a joint statement pledging to “bring forward national measures to ban trade” in goods originating from Israeli settlements.
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The fact that the announcement came a mere seven weeks before Israelis head to the polls — and as their leaders, courts and police show signs that they are beginning to take the issue of settler violence seriously — exposes it for what it is: a feeble attempt at election interference and a profound disrespect for the Jewish state’s liberal-democratic institutions.
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The statement — issued by Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom — justified the new measures by claiming that the situation in the West Bank is “rapidly deteriorating amid unprecedented levels of settler violence and settlement expansion, including the unacceptable decision to publish tenders for the E1 settlement project,” and called on the Israeli government to “immediately halt the expansion of settlements and civilian administrative powers, ensure accountability for settler violence and investigate allegations against Israeli forces.”
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There’s no question that settler violence in the West Bank has been a growing problem since Hamas’s October 7 massacre, and that the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not taken the problem seriously. Yet that appears to be changing following a brazen attack on the Palestinian village of Qusra on Aug. 29, in which settlers allegedly laid siege to a home with a Palestinian family inside.
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Later that day, Netanyahu issued a rare condemnation of the “rioters … causing a huge injustice to the law-abiding settler public, hindering the IDF in fulfilling its missions and harming Israel’s standing in the world.”
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A statement from a spokesperson for the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, Doron Spielman, acknowledged that there “is still more work to do” to prevent further attacks on Palestinians, while pledging that Israel will do it “with determination and without hesitation.” Israel, he said, “is a nation of laws and we will not tolerate vigilantism of any kind by any one.”
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Similar sentiments were echoed by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who called extremist settlers a “shame on the face of Israel,” and claimed that a “major effort” is underway to “undermine these activities and bring people to justice.”
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The proof, of course, is in the pudding, and since that time, four settlers, including a soldier, have been arrested, as police continue their investigation. The military is also investigating an incident on Saturday, in which soldiers allegedly threw a Palestinian man out the back of a vehicle.