Japan on Tuesday announced sanctions against four Israelis accused of acts of violence against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, becoming the latest country to do so in recent months.
Tokyo’s chief Cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, claimed that the decision, the first of its kind for Japan, was taken against the background of an “escalation” of violence in the territory in the aftermath of the Hamas-led Oct. 7 massacre.
Hayashi said the sanctions, imposed in consultation with other G7 countries, came after Tokyo “repeatedly asked for the suspension of settlement activities” in Judea and Samaria by the Israeli government.
Tokyo will continue to “urge the Israeli government to completely freeze settlement activities in cooperation with the international community, including the G7,” the Cabinet secretary told reporters on Tuesday.
The individuals sanctioned are farmers Yinon Levi from Judea’s Hebron Hills, Zvi Bar Yosef from western Samaria, Neriya Ben Pazi from the Binyamin region of Samaria and Moshe Sharvit from the Jordan Valley.
The United States, United Kingdom, Canada and France, as well as the European Union, have in recent months all imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on Israelis accused of alleged abuses of Palestinians.
Official data shows that the number of violent incidents committed by Israelis against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria continues to drop.
Meanwhile, Judea and Samaria saw a dramatic rise in Palestinian terrorist attacks in recent months, with shootings reaching their highest level in 2023 since the Second Intifada of 2000-05, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Last week, the European Council, the top decision-making body in the European Union, announced it was designating five Israeli citizens and three Israeli entities under its human rights sanctions regime, accusing them of “systematic abuse” of Palestinian civilians in Judea and Samaria.
Only days prior, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed financial sanctions on five Israeli entities and three people for what it said was their support of acts of “violent extremism” in the disputed areas.
