The “so-called sanctions” that British foreign secretary Ed Miliband announced on Tuesday banning products from Judea and Samaria are “shameful” and “not helpful,” Danny Danon, Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters at U.N. headquarters on Tuesday.
“We’re an independent country, a sovereign country,” Danon said at the press briefing in Turtle Bay. “If someone thinks that diplomacy is being played by applying sanctions or trying to bend our arm, we will take action as well.”
The envoy told reporters that he “met with the U.K. ambassador when she came in.”
“Don’t expect to dictate your ideas on us,” he told her. “You know, the British Mandate of Palestine is over.”
Miliband told Parliament on Tuesday that the United Kingdom would ban imports from Israeli “settlements,” impose more sanctions on “extremist settlers who have supported or incited acts of violence against Palestinian communities” and target companies and people involved in “settlement expansion.”
The United Kingdom plans to ban advertising “illegal settlements” in the United Kingdom and restrict exports of goods that it says “materially contribute to the occupation,” Miliband said.
“Settler terrorism is rampant,” Miliband said. “The U.N. reports an average of six violent settler attacks against Palestinians per day this year, the highest on record.”
“The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank perpetrated by settler terrorists,” he said. “All too often the Israeli government has turned a blind eye to this and worse, members of it have made statements and taken actions to support the forced displacement of Palestinians.”
Danon told JNS that he rejects the term “settler violence” and said that those carrying out attacks against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria should be treated as criminals rather than terrorists.
“I don’t think it is terrorism, because I don’t think it’s organized,” he said. “You don’t see ideology or budget.”
The Israeli envoy compared what he called “so-called settler violence” with Hamas, which he said has a “chain of command” and “goals.”
“We’re talking about a few thousand gangsters who commit sporadic activities,” he said, referring to Israelis who commit violence against Arabs in the region. “All the ones should be arrested, and that’s it.”
Danon told JNS that when he was a child, members of an “organized” Jewish terrorist organization “were all arrested and put in jail.”
“That’s not the case today,” he said. “Today, you see those outlaws, and I don’t think labeling them terrorists is the right definition.”
When asked whether the attention surrounding “settler violence” is a concern, Danon told JNS that “it’s a concern because it’s impacting public opinion. It’s impacted governments.”
‘They are biased’
Shortly after Miliband’s announcement, he and the foreign ministers of 11 more countries—Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Spain, Sweden and Spain and Ireland—said jointly that they intended or were considering restrictions on trade in goods from Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
Danon told reporters that Israel was considering retaliatory measures against Britain, including “closing their consulate in Jerusalem.”
He said that Israel is considering excluding British representatives from a coordination center involved in humanitarian operations in Gaza and making it more difficult for British nongovernmental organizations to operate in Judea and Samaria and Gaza.
“It would be harder for them now to be involved in what’s happening on the ground in Judea and Samaria and in Gaza, because we feel that they are not objective and they are biased,” he said.
“If you are biased and you are one-sided and you condemn, for example, only the activity that took place against Palestinians but not against Israelis, don’t expect to become involved in the process when the day will come, when we start the negotiation with the Palestinians,” he said.
Danon also rejected the broader characterization of “settler violence,” telling reporters that “when you say ‘settler violence,’ basically, you label half a million Israelis who live in cities, in communities.”
“Just because you have a few thousand criminals, you cannot label the entire community as terrorists,” he said.
No one “blamed the entire Muslim population” for a hate crime that took place in the United Kingdom, Danon said.
“I think the same in Judea and Samaria,” he said.
Israeli officials condemn Jewish violence when it occurs, he told reporters.
“When that happens, you hear the president, the prime minister—everyone will condemn it,” he said. “When it happens on the other side, they glorify killers. They name squares after them.”
He also accused Britain’s Labour government of allowing domestic politics to shape its Israel policy.
“It’s important to be very clear. I have nothing against the British people,” he said. “We have issues with the Labour government. I think they’re trying to interfere in our election.”
Restricting trade with businesses in Judea and Samaria would also hurt Palestinians employed by Israeli businesses there, according to Danon.
“You don’t improve anything by doing that,” he said. “You don’t even improve the situation on the ground. You’re actually hurting the Palestinians.”
Palestinians work in industrial areas in Judea and Samaria to “make a living,” he said.
“Basically, you punish not Israelis. You punish Israelis and the Palestinians who work together in the industrial areas—Ma’ale Adumim, Barkan, in Ariel,” Danon said. “So it’s not really helpful, and I know that the U.K. will not be happy with the response we take.”
