Sanctioning Two Israeli Ministers Is Not Enough—Canada Must Take Real Action

By Tazeen Hasan
Senior Researcher and Policy Analyst, Justice for All Canada

Since October 7, Justice for All Canada has consistently called on the Canadian government to sanction Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich for their direct role in promoting illegal settlements, inciting settler violence, and enabling the unfolding genocide in Gaza. As part of the policy team, I have worked to highlight their actions in multiple documents and advocacy efforts.

So when Canada—alongside the United Kingdom, France, Australia, and the United States—announced sanctions against these two ministers last week, I should have been pleased. Instead, I am deeply concerned. While symbolically notable and historically unprecedented, these sanctions are politically calculated and profoundly insufficient.

They fail to reflect the severity of crimes in Gaza—and worse, they may serve as a substitute for real action. The joint statement highlights the ministers’ role in inciting settler violence in the occupied West Bank. While their support for land theft and forced displacement demands condemnation, the omission of Gaza—the site of over 50,000 Palestinian deaths, most of them women and children—is staggering. In Gaza, we are witnessing Israeli efforts to block aid, destroy infrastructure, and repeatedly target convoys. The Israeli military has fired on civilians gathering for food and water. To ignore this while selectively sanctioning individuals over West Bank violence signals a disturbing willingness to normalize genocide.

This is not a bureaucratic oversight; rather, it is a deliberate political choice to avoid holding Israel accountable. While human rights experts and the International Court of Justice raise the alarm, Canada’s silence on Gaza in the sanctions statement is deafening. The sanctions apply to Ben-Gvir and Smotrich in their personal capacities. Yet, they are not rogue actors—they are senior figures shaping Israeli government policy.

Settler violence and expansion are not fringe policies; they are longstanding state strategies since 1967. By isolating these two figures, Canada shields the Israeli state from direct accountability. This, in turn, undermines Canada’s stated commitment to human rights and international law.

Moreover, Canadian-made weapons and dual-use technologies may still reach Israeli forces. These tools are used in the bombing of hospitals, schools, refugee camps, and civilian infrastructure. While Canada has halted the issuance of new arms export permits, it has not imposed a full embargo. Existing permits may still funnel Canadian-made components into Israel’s military supply chain. A comprehensive embargo would send a far clearer message: Canada will not be complicit in atrocities.

Similarly, a trade embargo on goods from illegal settlements—or a broader review of trade ties with Israel’s military-industrial complex—would demonstrate real resolve. By contrast, targeting two far-right ministers with apparently no assets in Canada and little incentive to visit is symbolic at best, hollow at worst.

Since October, Canadians from all walks of life—including Indigenous leaders, Jewish voices of conscience, students, and labour unions—have called for action. Mass protests, campus encampments, and global solidarity campaigns have forced governments to respond.

By not addressing Gaza, by not holding the Israeli government accountable, and by failing to impose arms and trade embargoes, it raises suspicion that these sanctions are not the result of a moral awakening but rather political appeasement—measures meant to pacify public outrage rather than prevent atrocities.

Canada cannot uphold a “rules-based international order” while applying international law selectively. By failing to sanction the Israeli state or restrict military and trade cooperation, Canada enables continued impunity.

South Africa has brought a genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice, and the Court has found it plausible. Under the Genocide Convention, Canada must not only punish genocide but prevent it. Sanctions that avoid confronting the machinery behind the violence are not preventive—they are distractions.

The situation in Gaza is dire. Aid is blocked. Civilians are targeted. Entire neighborhoods have been flattened. The West Bank continues to suffer land confiscation, settler attacks, and systemic apartheid. Sanctions targeting just two ministers—without naming the broader structure of state violence—are inadequate and dangerously misleading.

Canada must do more. It must impose a full arms embargo. It must reassess its trade relations. It must stop treating Israeli state policy as compatible with Canadian values. Anything less is complicity.

Finally, Canada should support a UN-led Responsibility to Protect (R2P) response to prevent further atrocities. The time for symbolic gestures has passed. Canada must act decisively—and now.