An Israeli settler flashes the V for victory sign as they drive past Palestinian Muslims gathering for Friday prayers in east Jerusalem on December 29, 2023, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the militant Hamas group in Gaza.
- The US has imposed sanctions on four Israeli men involved in
settler violence in the West Bank. - The executive order establishes financial sanctions and visa
restrictions against individuals accused of attacking or intimidating
Palestinians. - The State Department’s actions freeze the US assets of the
individuals, signalling a continued push for a two-state solution.
The Biden administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on four Israeli men
it accused of being involved in settler violence in the West Bank, signalling
growing US displeasure with the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu.
President Joe Biden issued an executive order on Thursday that aims to
punish ill-behaved Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, where
Palestinians envisage a future state.
The order establishes a system for imposing financial sanctions and visa
restrictions against individuals who attack or intimidate Palestinians or seize
their property, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a
statement.
“Today’s actions seek to promote peace and security for Israelis and
Palestinians alike,” he said.
The State Department sanctions, freezing the US assets of the four men and
generally barring Americans from dealing with them, are the latest since
Palestinian Hamas militants on 7 October carried out an attack on Israel, and
Israel responded with an assault on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.
FOLLOW IT LIVE | DEVELOPING: Biden imposes sanctions over ‘intolerable’ Israeli settler violence
In December, the United States began imposing visa bans on people involved
in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
A State Department statement on Thursday said:
- David Chai Chasdai initiated and led a riot that included setting vehicles and buildings on fire and causing damage to property in Huwara, resulting in the death of a Palestinian civilian.
- Einan Tanjil assaulted Palestinian farmers and Israeli activists by attacking them with stones and clubs, resulting in injuries that required medical treatment.
- Shalom Zicherman, according to video evidence, assaulted Israeli activists and their vehicles in the West Bank, blocking them on the street, attempted to break the windows of passing vehicles with activists inside, and cornered at least two of the activists and injured both.
- Yinon Levi led a group of settlers that assaulted Palestinian and Bedouin civilians, burned their fields and destroyed their property.
“Israel must do more to stop violence against civilians in the West
Bank and hold accountable those responsible for it,” US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken said in a separate statement.
“The United States will continue to take actions to advance the
foreign policy objectives of the United States, including the viability of a
two-state solution, and is committed to the safety, security, and dignity of
Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
Biden and other senior US officials have warned repeatedly that Israel
must act to stop violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West
Bank.
Biden has raised the issue directly with Netanyahu, said one senior
official, as Biden seeks a path to a two-state solution for Israel and the
Palestinians once the Gaza conflict ends.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said US officials had
presented documented cases of settler violence to Israeli counterparts and in
some cases Israel had taken action.
The levels of settler violence in the West Bank have come down in the past
roughly two months since those interventions, Miller said at a press briefing.
Three of the four men hit with sanctions had been prosecuted by Israel, he
added.
Miller said Thursday’s order was targeted at foreign nationals, but he did
not rule out further US action against the many Jewish settlers who hold US
citizenship.
“You should not conclude that we are done,” he said.
Netanyahu, who heads a religious-rightist coalition, has resisted US
entreaties to develop a plan for post-conflict Gaza and to embrace a peace deal
that envisages Israeli and Palestinian states side by side.
His office on Thursday responded to the US measures by saying they were
unnecessary.
“Israel takes action against all law-breakers everywhere, and
therefore there is no need for unusual measures on the issue,” it said in
a statement.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, head of the far-right
pro-settlement party Religious Zionism, was defiant in a statement on the Biden
order, saying:
“The ‘settler violence’ campaign is an antisemitic lie that enemies
of Israel disseminate with the goal of smearing the pioneering settlers and
settlement enterprise, and to harm them and thus smear the entire State of
Israel,” Smotrich said.
Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has occupied the West Bank of the
Jordan River, which Palestinians want as the core of an independent state. It
has built Jewish settlements there that most countries deem illegal. Israel
disputes this and cites historical and biblical ties to the land.
Hamas fighters killed 1 200 people and captured 253 hostages on 7 October,
precipitating an Israeli offensive that has laid waste to much of Gaza. Health
officials in the enclave said on Thursday the confirmed death toll had risen
above 27 000, with thousands more dead still lying under the rubble.
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