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Israeli government’s response last week Unprecedented joint declaration Through Canada, France and the United Kingdom could hardly be clearer, explains the former Canadian ambassador to Israel Jon Allen, now a principal researcher at Munk school in Toronto University.
“It is essentially to tell the world that we do not really care about what you think at this stage,” he told CBC News. “They really hit their nose in the international community.”
The expansion of regulations has accelerated since the arrival of the current government, the sixth of Netanyahu, at the end of 2022. But Allen said The announcement of 22 new colonies – both thanks to the new construction and the formalization of the outposts of existing settlers built outside the law – is a major escalation in several ways.
“First of all, it is great in terms of figures. Secondly, it is legalized what has been deemed illegal regulations even in Israel by his Supreme Court,” he said.
“But more importantly, you get declarations of ministers who essentially say that the goal is to prevent a two-state solution, while you have an activity in Gaza at the same time, which seems that Israel may also try to occupy large parts of the Gaza Strip.”
The dramatic action, he said, is motivated by a sense in the Israeli right that it is a moment now or never.
“These ministers realize that their survey numbers are very bad and it is their last chance to try to change significantly in the field in Israel,” he said.
“And so they really try a last effort to kill the solution to two states.”
From the prison cell to the cabinet table
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given his full approval to the regulation plan, many Israelis think that the strongest momentum comes from the country’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrichwhich also holds key positions by giving it control of the West Bank.
Smotrich’s role illustrates how traditional politics in Israel has changed over the past two decades.
In 2005, Smotrich was one of the four radical settlers arrested by the Israel security service, suspected of having plotted violent attacks to prevent the evacuation of the Israeli colonies in Gaza and in the north of the West Bank. He appeared before the security court with handcuffs and a prison combination.
Today, it is the government number-two of the government and able to order the official recovery of the colonies whose evacuation he opposed so radically.
Smotrich on May 19 praised that “we demonstrate Gaza and leave it like lots of rubble with total destruction [that has] No preceding worldwide. And the world does not stop us. “”
He said that his own preference would be to cut the water as well as food, but that could lead other countries to intervene. He openly declared that the goal was not to leave Palestinians in Gaza.
On May 25, he returned to the same theme.
“We are blessed of the occasion, thank God, to see an expansion of the borders of the land of Israel, on all fronts,” he said. “We are lucky enough to erase the Amalek seedA process that intensifies. “”
“Loss of credibility” if Canada does not act
“We oppose any attempt to expand the colonies in the West Bank,” wrote Prime Minister Mark Carney, Keir Starmer in Great Britain and Emmanuel Macron of France in their joint declaration last week.
“Israel must stop the colonies, which are illegal, and undermine the viability of a Palestinian state and the security of Israelis and Palestinians. We will not hesitate to take other measures, including targeted sanctions.”
Thomas Juneau, a former Canadian Defense official who now teaches the Middle East at the Graduate School of Public Affairs from Ottawa University, CBC News told the announcement of Israel did not leave Canada other choice than to safeguard his words.
Look | Which warns against famine in Gaza:
The risk of mass and mass famine increases in Gaza, warns the World Health Organization. Palestinian health officials say dozens of children have died of malnutrition since March, the month Israel has blocked all assistance expeditions.
“This exerts pressure on the Canadian government, but also on the French, British, German and other governments in the sense that there was a clear position which was taken last week to threaten actions against Israel,” said Juneau.
“So, if Canada players and European actors are now doing nothing on 22 new colonies in the West Bank, there is a loss of credibility that would follow.”
Former Ambassador Allen said that Canada could not make a marker like the joint declaration on which he signed last week, then let such a provocative response pass without acting.
“I frankly don’t think they will ignore this. I think these three governments were serious about what they said, and I expect the sanctions to follow,” he told CBC News.
The sanctions should target ministers: the former ambassador
Canada has already sanctioned a Handle of extremist settlersalcohol reluctantly And Only following actions taken by European allies.
But Western sanctions have had little practical effect on individual colonists, which sometimes treated them as an honor of honor.
Although condemned several times by Western governments, the most extreme ministers in the Netanyahu cabinet have so far avoided sanctions. British David Cameron said to the BBC last year that he had prepared sanctions for Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir before his government’s electoral defeat. Ben Gvir is An extremist from the root who was also once a target For monitoring of Shin bets, but is now the Israeli Minister of National Security.
Allen says that there would be little fact in the simple repetition of ineffective sanctions against individual colonists, when the settlement policy is clearly chased from the summit.
“I thought it [the joint statement] was the strongest and most complete announcement that I have ever seen outside the Canadian government. But if they did not follow up, after having issued a specific threat to regulations, then I think it would be a paper declaration. “”
Allen has identified Smotrich, Ben Gvir and Defense Minister Israel Katz as the three members of the cabinet leading the most radical policies.
“If I advised them, I would advise them to sanction the ministers in question, the three of them,” he told CBC News. “But we must recognize that Prime Minister Netanyahu is the Prime Minister and that he allows all of this to happen,” he said.
Netanyahu counting on Trump
Juneau says that Netanyahu, in times like these, tends to rely on Israel’s relationship with Washington. Trump administration is the only major government in the world does not always consider The colonies of the West Bank of Israel are intrinsically illegal under the fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits a victorious War party from transferring its own population to conquered territory, or forcing the civilian population who lives there.
“As much as there is an increasing trend of European powers and Canada irritated by Israel, this has only the most in the calculation of the current Israeli government,” said June.
President Donald Trump, who suggested to expel the population of Gaza to transform the territory into a sort of international Tourist RivieraIt is unlikely that he reacts strongly to the announcement of the regulation, said Juneau. “But there are many indications that the Trump administration becomes somewhat irritated with Israel.”
The signs include the fact that Trump and Vice-President JD Vance visited the Middle East without stopping in Israel, that Trump clearly ignored the Israeli wishes and objections In negotiations with Iran and the Yemen Houthis And persistent rumors that Trump secretly negotiates a kind of great affair with Saudi Arabia without Israeli contribution.
“All of this has been put in place, it is anxiety in Israel,” said Juneau.
Canada will probably coordinate with allies
Canada will probably want to coordinate its response to British and French governments who co-signed the joint declaration last week, say the two experts.
“Where Canada can have a limited but real impact, it is when it acts with its allies, especially in Europe, but others too: Australia, Japan, South Korea and a few others,” said Juneau.
“If there is a coordinated campaign, not only of sticks for Israel, but also support for the Palestinian Authority and at the Peace Camp in Israel, then there can be an impact.”
This week, European countries that have not signed the joint declaration have warned Israel separately that their patience was over.
Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs said The War of Israel in Gaza had taken “absolutely dramatic and unacceptable forms” and “must stop immediately”. The Conservative Chancellor of Germany Friedrich Merz, a long time an unconditional supporter of Israel, said That “what the Israeli army does in the Gaza Strip, I no longer understand the objective, to harm the civilian population in this way”.
For the first time, Germany threatened with “consequences” if Israel has not changed direction, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul said that the days of “compulsory solidarity” of Germany with Israel were finished.
Juneau says that Canada has no choice but to demand respect for the two -state formula and international law.
“If peace remains the objective, if security remains the objective, then there is no other alternative than the coexistence between the Palestinian part and the Israeli side,” he said.
“I think that all people involved on the European side, on the Canadian government side, understand perfectly how peace is. But it remains the only acceptable option.”
