Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Tuesday declined to take a phone call from his British counterpart, David Lammy, after the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on two Israeli cabinet ministers, a senior Israeli diplomatic source told JNS on Wednesday.
Lammy is believed to have called to discuss the decision of the United Kingdom, together with Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway, to ban entry to Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, according to the source. The reason for the ban was the minister’s ostensible incitement of “extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights,” as Lammy put it in an X post.
Sa’ar declined to take the call to underline Israel’s utter rejection of the move, which Sa’ar had described as an “unacceptable decision,” the source added.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned the entry ban, writing on X: “These sanctions do not advance US-led efforts to achieve a ceasefire, bring all hostages home, and end the war”. He urged the nations to reverse the sanctions, adding that the United States “stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel.”
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee joined Rubio’s condemnation, describing the move as a “shocking decision” in an interview with the BBC.
The sanction follows efforts by the five countries that implemented them, and by others, to pressure Israel into ending its war against Hamas, which Israel seeks to dismantle. On Oct. 7, 2023, thousands of Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, murdering some 1,200 people and abducting another 251. Dozens remain in Hamas’s hands, and Israel has vowed to free them and end Hamas as a military and governing entity in Gaza.
