A University of Toronto political scientist is not sure sanctions against Israel by Canada, France and the U.K. will make a difference.
The three counties are threatening what they call concrete actions – including sanctions – against Israel in condemnation of the country’s action in Gaza.
In a joint statement, they call Israel’s decision to allow a basic amount of food into Gaza inadequate, and say they “will not stand by while the Netanyahu government pursues these egregious actions.”
University of Toronto Political Scientist, Renan Levine (U of T)
Renan Levine says the stand taken by the three countries did elicit a response from Netanyahu.
“Israel did respond in two ways; one is internally and behind closed doors, he yells and screams at his more nationalist, more hawkish coalition partners, ‘we’ve got a big problem here, we have to listen at least to some extent to what these foreign powers are saying,’ and then he extends outside the room and he yells at the foreign powers and says ‘how dare you criticize this war effort? What do you know?'”
Levine says Canadian sanctions will have no real impact on Israel.
“Canada does not have a lot of influence” says Levine. “A big part of the issue is that Canada sells very little directly to Israel. Canada is much more likely to sell to the United States, or other NATO countries, and then of course the United States in particular, turns around and either gifts or sells those arms and weapons to Israel. So, it’s a sticky situation.”
