We must impose heavy sanctions on Israel
4 min read
The UK should use trade sanctions to pressure Israel as it did against apartheid South Africa.
“It is without doubt that we are witnessing a genocide now in Gaza."
Not my words, but those of Professor Melanie O’Brien, the President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars.
She joins hundreds of legal experts in the study of genocide and a multitude of NGOS, including Israeli human rights organisations such as B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, in making the same conclusion.
While terms like genocide can often seem abstract, in Gaza, we are witnessing the visual horrors of such a crime being live-streamed every single day.
For my wife Nadia and me, it is deeply personal. We have no words of comfort for Nadia’s cousin Sally, who is in Gaza with her husband and four children, as they continue to shed weight and become emaciated while desperately searching for any scrap of food, during Israel’s campaign of forced starvation against the people of Gaza.
There is no doubt in my mind that the UK Government is utterly complicit in the genocide in Gaza, and must take action to ensure no further complicity.
On the one hand, in recent statements, the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary decry Israeli actions as “grotesque”, “inhumane” and “unacceptable”, yet on the other hand, they are selling weapons to the regime committing such atrocities.
We do not need more words of concern or statements of condemnation. They do nothing to prevent children from being starved to death. We need meaningful action.
Economic pressure in the form of trade sanctions would be fully justified, and as one of Israel's top five trade partners, decisive action from the UK would be significant. This should include suspending the UK's current trade agreement with Israel and preventing economic links with parts of Israel's economy associated with the genocide in Gaza and Israel's decades-long occupation.
It is time to treat the Israeli regime just as we did apartheid South Africa, when many states took action, placing trade bans on some key South African exports and banning new investment to exert pressure on the regime. Today, Palestinians are asking us to demand that our own governments do the same.
Polling carried out by NGO Global Justice Now in late May showed that three-fifths of the UK public wanted the UK to suspend its trade agreement with Israel, with support strongest in Scotland. This is an agreement that provides Israel with tariff-free access to the UK market, maintaining Israel as a privileged trade partner. It's also written into the deal that the agreement is conditional on respect for human rights – it’s hard to see what more Israel could do to go against this.
Another trade measure we must demand is a ban on goods produced in Israel's illegal settlements. These are the colonies that Israel has built across the West Bank, taking vast tracts of land from Palestinians, bulldozing homes and limiting Palestinian access to water, farmland and economic opportunities in the process.
It is unfathomable that goods produced in them are not banned by the UK and still end up on our shelves. The UK has shown principle in decisively banning the import of goods produced in Russia-occupied Crimea – why has it not done the same for Israel’s illegal occupation? This is yet another example of where Israeli war crimes go unchecked, and in Gaza, we have seen where complete impunity leads.
The International Court of Justice has made clear that all states must prevent any trade that assists Israel's illegal occupation. Separately, the court is clear: where there is a risk of genocide, countries must take whatever action they reasonably can to prevent it. Trade sanctions are a legal obligation, not an optional consideration, and one that an increasing number of Israelis are calling for themselves.
To be most effective, these measures would be strongest if carried out alongside others. Spain, Ireland, Belgium and others in the European Union have been pushing for the bloc to take trade measures against Israel.
If more is needed to deter Israel from its path of annihilation, then much deeper sanctions would be justified. We should look at the sanctions that the UK has put on Russia since it invaded Ukraine, including a ban on all new investment in Russia, and import bans on some of the goods that help bankroll the country’s war efforts.
To paraphrase author Omar El Akkad, when the time comes – and we are close – when everyone will have always been against this, we will all be asked if we did everything we possibly could to stop the genocide in Gaza. The UK Government most certainly has not. This is not simply about “being on the right side of history”. It is about ensuring we are not legally and morally complicit in the death of any more innocent men, women and children in Gaza.
Humza Yousaf is the MSP for Glasgow Pollok and former First Minister of Scotland.
