An Israeli farmer-activist and the nonprofit that backs him have become the first Israelis to take Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office to court over sanctions imposed on settlers since 2024, launching a test case that could set a precedent for dozens of other black-listed Israelis.
The petitioners are Moshe Sharvit – founder of “Moshe’s Farm,” an agricultural outpost in the Jordan Valley – and Hashomer Yosh, a volunteer-based NGO that provides security escorts and agricultural assistance to Jewish farmers across the West Bank.
The FCDO sanctioned Sharvit in February 2024, alleging harassment of Palestinians and Israeli human-rights activists. Washington issued parallel Treasury sanctions a month later. Britain followed up in October 2024 by black-listing Moshe’s Farm itself.
Hashomer Yosh was sanctioned by the United States in August and by the UK in October. London contends the group “supports violent outposts,” a charge the organization rejects.
Both Sharvit and Hashomer Yosh say they have begun formal proceedings to obtain the classified “sanctions packages” that set out the evidence against them, a first step toward applying for delisting in Britain’s High Court.
The case comes after US President Donald Trump, in one of his first foreign-policy moves after taking office in January 2025, voided all Biden-era sanctions on Israeli settlers and groups, including those against Sharvit and Hashomer Yosh. The UK measures, however, remain in force.
‘Misunderstanding of our work’
“We were founded to help farmers, and that is what we do,” said Meir Bertler, a spokesman for Hashomer Yosh. “The UK’s decision reflects a misunderstanding of the reality on the ground. We are confident the legal process will correct this injustice.”
Moshe’s Farm was established in 2016 by Sharvit and his brother, Capt. Harel Sharvit, who was killed fighting Hamas in Gaza in December 2023. “The farm is Harel’s legacy,” Moshe said in a statement released by his lawyers. “Labeling us as human-rights abusers dishonors his memory and distorts the truth.”
London’s sanctions against Israelis have widened in recent months. On June 10, three days before Israel’s war with Iran erupted, the FCDO announced personal sanctions on Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, citing their “repeated incitement of violence against Palestinian communities.”
Legal analysts in Jerusalem and London say the Sharvit–Hashomer Yosh petition could test whether Britain’s Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations, adopted in 2020, can be applied to conduct inside the West Bank, which Israel says falls under its own jurisdiction.
If the court orders the FCDO to disclose or defend the intelligence underpinning the designations, lawyers expect a string of similar challenges from other sanctioned Israelis.