Revealing a map of the sanctions imposed on Israel... 121 restrictive measures in 62 countries

Tel Aviv - Ofoq News - The Jewish Popular Policy Institute (JPPI) launched a database that monitors the sanctions and restrictive measures imposed on Israel around the world, and includes 121 measures in 62 countries, including 93 effective measures, 19 historical, and nine proposed or under planning measures.

On the other hand, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs questioned the accuracy of the data, while political sources warned that the absence of substantive sanctions on Israel currently does not guarantee the continuation of the situation, warning of the possibility of it changing in the future.

Data indicate that the pressure exerted on Israel is not concentrated in one area.

The financial field is the largest category on the map, as it includes 40 measures, or approximately a third of the documented measures. Followed by the areas of security, defense and trade, with 24 measures each. In addition, 14 measures in the diplomatic field and 12 measures in the legal field were documented.

Director General of the Jewish People's Policy Institute, Shoki Friedman, warned that sanctions imposed on Israeli ministers and individuals or settlement products may cross the green line, affecting banks, companies, investors and commercial partners. He stressed that the real danger lies in the accumulation of these sanctions and their transformation into widespread pressure on the economic and security systems on which Israel depends.

Mapping also makes it possible to identify the countries with the highest number of steps recorded: Spain tops the list with ten steps, followed by the United States (eight steps, all so far in the academic world only - plus two “historic” steps and five proposals to prevent the supply of weapons of all kinds), Great Britain (seven steps), Belgium (five steps) and Turkey (five steps

However, according to Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, the number of steps is not an indication of their severity or the extent of their impact. One step may be more important than several others, so the primary goal of the map is to illustrate the scope of the phenomenon and its geographical spread.

In this context, it is worth noting that in addition to European countries, where a large part of the steps are concentrated, the map also includes steps from North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa and Oceania.

Israeli political sources considered that the map was exaggerated, because it takes into account some European restrictions at the country level, even though it targets individuals, stressing that Israel has not yet faced substantive sanctions.

She added that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made extensive efforts to thwart possible European sanctions, especially undermining the trade agreement with the European Union, warning of wide economic repercussions if they were imposed. She pointed out that what she described as the “political Iron Dome” has survived thanks to the support of countries such as Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic, and not Hungary alone.

It is true that there are specific sanctions, and they are being addressed, including tough countermeasures by Israel, but at the end of the day, supermarkets across the country are not feeling the force of the trade agreement.

They added: “But we have made it clear that this situation may change in the future. Will the situation continue this way? It is not certain that it will continue. The situation may change after a while, if things continue in the same way.”

According to them, “The Netherlands, Spain and Ireland are frustrated that they cannot achieve the desired result in Brussels. At their last meeting, European foreign ministers expressed their dissatisfaction with the futility of the negotiations. So, having no other choice, they are resorting to other channels, such as Dutch sanctions. “We are maintaining the essence of the agreement, and we have also rolled back some negative measures in Slovenia and Colombia. It is hard work and is useless, because we do not see what we have frustrated.”

But they explained that the measures taken by Spain, Ireland and Britain regarding trade with the settlements “are not positive, but rather their side effect is their extension to the borders of countries.”