U.S. allies sanction 2 Israeli cabinet members “for inciting violence against Palestinians” in West Bank” [Video]

Five of the United States’ long-time allies — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom — announced Tuesday that they were jointly imposing sanctions on two senior Israeli officials, far-right nationalists who are members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet.

In a statement posted on the U.K. government’s official website, the foreign ministers of all five nations said Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich were being sanctioned “for inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.”

The sanctions were not laid out in detail, but could include bans on Smotrich and Ben-Gvir entering the U.S. allies’ territory, and the freezing of some foreign-held assets.

“Settler violence is incited by extremist rhetoric which calls for Palestinians to be driven from their homes, encourages violence and human rights abuses and fundamentally rejects the two-state solution. Settler violence has led to the deaths of Palestinian civilians and the displacement of whole communities,” the statement said. “Itamar Ben-Gvir …