The US should join its allies in sanctioning Smotrich and Ben-Gvir
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel's minister of Finance, leads the Religious Zionist Party in the Israeli parliament. Itamar Ben-Gvir, minister of National Security in the Netanyahu government, leads the Otzma Yehudit Party. The two men constitute the farthest-right position in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government.
Both men have opposed humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza. Both have supported the transfer of all Palestinians out of Gaza. Both have also downplayed violence against West Bank Palestinians as well as the construction of illegal settlements there.
And now both have been sanctioned by four major American allies: Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand, as well as Norway.
The five nations are freezing the assets of both men and are barring them from entry, because, as they explained in a joint statement, 'Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights. Extremist rhetoric advocating the forced displacement of Palestinians and the creation of new Israeli settlements is appalling and dangerous. These actions are not acceptable.'
The statement also discusses the conditions in Gaza, asserting that 'there must be no unlawful transfer of Palestinians from Gaza or within the West Bank, nor any reduction in the territory of the Gaza Strip,' without mentioning Ben-Gvir and Smotrich in that context, though both have been outspoken advocates of those policies.
There is nothing new about their racism and their advocacy of the harshest treatment of Palestinians. As young man, Smotrich bitterly opposed Israel's 2005 withdrawal from Gaza and was arrested and jailed for three weeks that year on suspicion of participating in an attempt to blow up Ayalon Highway, the major road that runs through Tel Aviv and skirts the area where the Israeli defense ministry headquarters are located.
In 2016, Smotrich tweeted that Arab and Jewish women should be segregated in hospital wards, because, he argued, 'it is natural that my wife would not want to lie down next to someone who just gave birth to a baby that might want to murder her baby in another 20 years.' In 2023, as a member of Netanyahu's government, Smotrich asserted that 'there is no such thing as a Palestinian nation.' In November of that year, he called for the 'voluntary migration' of Gazans, subsequently stated that Israel needed to 'encourage immigration' — and has vocally supported the Trump plan to do just that.
Ben-Gvir's radicalism makes Smotrich look tame by comparison. Ast age 16, Ben-Gvir joined Kach, the racist anti-Arab party founded by Meir Kahane that the Israeli government branded a terrorist organization. Kach advocated the expulsion of all Arabs from Israel; Ben-Gvir served as one of its youth coordinators.
In 1995, Ben-Gvir vandalized Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's official car. Appearing on television, he flaunted the car's hood ornament and announced that 'we got his car and we'll get to him too.' Only a few weeks later, Rabin was assassinated.
Whereas Smotrich served in the Israel Defense Forces, though not in a combat unit, Ben-Gvir was disqualified from joining the military because of his radical background. Indicted on dozens of occasions, he was convicted in 2007 for incitement to racism and supporting a terrorist organization. This convicted criminal now is now in charge of Israel's police and prisons.
Like Smotrich, Ben-Gvir has advocated settler expansion in the West Bank, and has strongly defended settler attacks on Palestinians. He has argued that Jewish freedom of movement in the West Bank is a higher priority than that for Palestinians. As a government minister he has been a strong supporter of extremist demonstrations, which often result in violence against Palestinians. He has opposed humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, and, like Smotrich, has advocated for their removal from the enclave.
It is no wonder then that both men are no longer welcome in the U.K., Canada and Australia. The wonder is that they continue to be welcome in America. Smotrich visited Washington this year, and Ben-Gvir in particular has been granted a hero's welcome elsewhere in America.
It is time that Washington followed the lead of its close allies. Smotrich and Ben-Gvir should both be sanctioned and no longer be welcome anywhere in the U.S.
Dov S. Zakheim is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and vice chairman of the board for the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He was undersecretary of Defense (comptroller) and chief financial officer for the Department of Defense from 2001 to 2004 and a deputy undersecretary of Defense from 1985 to 1987.
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