"Israel is afraid of a double snowball effect"

 

Linn Lindblom Pääjärvi/TT

 

Published 20.42

 

Israel's settlements in the West Bank violate international law and are condemned by a number of countries. Picture from the West Bank, taken on Tuesday. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/AP/TT

The announced sanctions against settlers in the West Bank have angered Israel greatly - but it is not certain that they will have an effect on the ground, according to Middle East expert Anders Persson.

- The risk is that future historians will see this as too little, too late.

Britain bans imports of goods and services from Israeli settlements. The announcement comes at the eleventh hour, according to Anders Persson, who is an associate professor of political science at Linnaeus University.

- It is a very serious situation in the entire Israel-Palestine conflict. We are seeing a greatly worsening situation in the West Bank with increased settler violence and increased confiscation of land.

In the middle of an election campaign

The reactions from Israel, which have closed the British consulate in East Jerusalem, among other things, are due to a fear of a “double snowball effect,” says Anders Persson.

– There is a fear that other countries will follow suit, and it looks like there is every reason to be worried about that. Some have already followed suit and there are rumors that more will do so, says Persson.

– The second part is that Israel is afraid that this is the beginning of various types of sanctions and boycotts against the entire country, and not just the settlements.

The fact that Israel is in the middle of an election campaign further complicates the situation, according to Persson. The country goes to the polls on October 27.

– This means that the Israeli government and the right-wing parties in particular need to show their wings a little more clearly.

“Genuine fear”

According to Anders Persson, there is a risk that the sanctions will have little effect on the ground – not least because exports from the settlements in the West Bank constitute a very small part of Israel’s economy.

However, he emphasizes, Israel’s reaction indicates that the country sees today’s announcement as more than just empty talk.

– They wouldn’t have done all this if there hadn’t been a genuine fear of what it could lead to in the long term.

Sweden also wants to see similar sanctions against Israeli settlers, but at the EU level. Anders Persson says that there is logic in that reasoning.

– But it is a well-proven phenomenon both in Sweden and in other countries, that a possible EU line is used as an excuse for not doing anything, says Anders Persson.