Why the West Bank sanctions must be a wake-up call for Israel

As a proud Israeli, I find myself in the strange position of welcoming the sanctions that have been imposed by the British Government.

I do not see them as an attack upon my country per se, but rather as a necessary move against devastating developments that are actually endangering the future of the State of Israel.

I arrived in Israel from Leeds with my parents at age 7, coming from the Fisch and Swift families, among whom were several Rabbis and Dayanim.  Since then, I have spent my life serving Israel in many different ways. I was a company commander in the Paratroopers – among other things fighting as a reservist in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. All my children, and those of my grandchildren who are of age, are still serving too. As a scientist, I have represented my country at numerous international forums and have been heartened to see incredible scientific innovations from Israel serving for the good of the whole world.

This is the reality that was envisaged by the Theodor Herzl and built by David Ben Gurion. It was their vision that brought my parents to make Aliyah back in 1957.

However, to use a football analogy, Israel is now in the 90th minute, maybe even in injury time, and we are one step away from losing the country I know and love. Our current government has fuelled settlement expansion and allowed extremists to terrorize Palestinian men, women and children in the West Bank while the security forces have done almost nothing. Its policies cause real harm, and are not just blatantly immoral and strikingly illegal. They do not just harm Palestinians, they also endanger Israel’s international standing, and its existence as a Jewish and democratic state.

I have seen the reality of what happening on the ground with my own eyes in the Northern part of the Jordan Valley, part of so-called area C, which is under full Israeli control, but similar things are occurring in the last few weeks other areas too. I have met with Bedouin shepherds who face almost daily violence from settlers trying to force them from their land, and who routinely kill or steal their cattle.  I have seen a depressingly empty school in the once thriving community of Hammam al-Malih abandoned after multiple attacks and cruel vandalism by settlers from a nearby outpost. I have also seen the tenacity of people in the village of Khirbet Samra, who are holding onto their homes, despite the attacks by the violent settlers from the nearby settler farm of Nof Gilad, who set out on an almost daily basis to intimidate, steal and attack.

As if all this is not enough, over twenty new settlements have been established in recent weeks in other areas of the West Bank, and more are being planned.

These events are not an aberration; they are a consequence of a deliberate policy coming from the heart of this Israeli Government.  Betzalel Smotrich, who, besides being our Finance Minister, holds the post of a special minister in the Defence Ministry, with responsibility for the West Bank, speaks of ‘encouraging’ Palestinian emigration from the there. He has also recently announced plans to build thousands of settler homes in the E1 area East of Jerusalem, thus dividing the West Bank and making any two-state solution impossible.

Doing nothing in the face of this terrible reality is not an option. Hence, targeted sanctioning of produce from the settlements, along with actions against settler organizations and individuals is a sad necessity. It marks a line that this Israeli government has long crossed. It sets in motion a process that aims to save my country from these malevolent forces and prevent their aim of supremacy and autocracy, thus helping to render the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians never-ending.

Thankfully, what is has now been set out by the British Government is different from the blanket boycotts proposed by the BDS movement, and seeing it as such confuses between three different narratives that I have been hearing over the last three years.

The first narrative is driven by antisemitism – with a desire that ‘the Jews must go away’ (to put it mildly). The second is motivated by ‘anti-Israelism’ or ‘anti-Zionism’ – that the State of Israel must ‘go away’ (this I put very mildly too). The third consists of being ‘anti-what-Israel-is-doing’, which really means that Israel’s current government must go away.

I have long pressed international organizations and individuals – many of them in the field of science – to reject boycotts that are motivated by the ill-will found in the first two narratives. But I fully support the third, which is vital in fighting the terrible reality that has been created by Prime Minister Netanyahu and his allies.

I understand that external actions and criticism of Israel are uncomfortable for many British Jews. But I also know that those of us in Israel who want to see our country surviving as a democratic state, which is at peace with our Palestinian neighbours, need help to stop those in our government who are set on destroying that vision. Doing so makes Israel more secure for us, but also for Jews around the world, who are unjustly attacked for their association with Israel.

The planned UK sanctions are an important step founded in the idea that what is happening cannot continue – for the good of both Israel and the Palestinians. Standing in opposition to hatred and wisely differentiating between the settlements and the State of Israel, they seek to uphold the values as set out in our Declaration of Independence and make Israel a country that Israelis, along with Jews in Britain and elsewhere, can feel proud of rather than ashamed.

David Harel is an Institute Professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and since 2021 is President of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Among his many honours, he is recipient of the 2004 Israel Prize in Computer Science and is a member of The Royal Society of the United Kingdom.