Australia and NZ among countries announcing sanctions against two far-right Israeli ministers [Video]

Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich face asset freezes and travel bans from the five countries.

The ministers are champions of expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Surrounded by security guards, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, centre, participates in march marking Jerusalem Day, an Israeli holiday celebrating the capture of east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, in Damascus Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City, Monday, May 26, 2025 (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

The decision by Western governments friendly to Israel was a sharp rebuke of Israel’s settlement policies in the West Bank and of settler violence, which has spiked since Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack ignited the war in the Gaza Strip.

The five countries’ foreign ministers said in a joint statement that Ben-Gvir and Smotrich “have incited extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights.

Extremist rhetoric advocating the forced displacement of Palestinians and the creation of …

Tags Canada, Canada Life, Canada Travel, Canada Trip, Canadian Traveller