<\/p>\n
The UK announced the measures jointly with France and Canada, accusing the Israeli government of failing to prevent what the three countries described as the \u201cethnic cleansing\u201d of Palestinians by settlers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In response, Israel ordered the UK to close the British consulate in East Jerusalem within 30 days.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Speaking to Channel Africa on Wednesday, Thomashausen, Professor Emeritus of International, Comparative and Constitutional Law at the University of South Africa (SA), questioned the impact of the sanctions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Thomashausen argued that domestic political considerations were partly driving the decisions by European governments, pointing to the size of Muslim populations in the UK and France.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Thomashausen described the measures as political posturing and questioned whether sanctions would materially affect Israel.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The sanctions also come as SA pursues its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Thomashausen said the sanctions would neither strengthen nor weaken SA\u2019s case, arguing that the legal proceedings would depend on evidence presented under the Genocide Convention.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Thomashausen maintained that SA would need to establish its allegations through evidence before the Court could reach a determination.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On whether the measures could encourage other Western countries to impose similar sanctions, Thomashausen expressed doubt, arguing that Israel remains an important strategic ally of Western countries in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Thomashausen also argued that Israel\u2019s security concerns remained a significant factor in Western policy towards the country.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Thomashausen said settlement expansion remained a contentious issue but argued that governments could face difficulties controlling actions by individual citizens or groups.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The UK, France and Canada have maintained that the sanctions are intended to protect the prospects of a two-state solution and respond to violence and settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":41068,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44,26],"class_list":["post-45080","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The United Kingdom\u2019s (UK) sanctions against Israeli settlers linked to illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank are unlikely to put significant pressure on Israel to halt settlement expansion, according to International Law Expert Professor Andr\u00e9 Thomashausen.","published_date":"","news_description":"The United Kingdom\u2019s (UK) sanctions against Israeli settlers linked to illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank are unlikely to put significant pressure on Israel to halt settlement expansion, according to International Law Expert Professor Andr\u00e9 Thomashausen.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45081,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45080\/revisions\/45081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=45080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}