Biden administration sanctions West Bank settlers

WASHINGTON (CN) — President Joe Biden on Thursday issued an executive order targeting settlers who are attacking Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in his first break with Israel since its invasion of the Gaza Strip.

While Biden has been unwavering in his full-throated support of Israel since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, he has faced mounting pressure to be tougher on Israel as its operations in Gaza have been criticized as disproportionate and targeting civilians.

The West Bank is the largest of the occupied Palestinian territories, home to roughly 3 million people. For years, far-right Israeli settlers have staged attacks on the Palestinians living there to seize land. Those attacks have increased since Oct. 7, contributing to instability in the region.

“Today’s actions seek to promote peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike,” Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, said in a statement.

Biden has been criticized for resisting calls for a ceasefire as more than 25,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed in the campaign. Meanwhile, Washington is juggling multiple spillovers of the conflict, including three Army reserve soldiers killed on Sunday in Jordan, attacks on shipping in the Red Sea by the Houthis, rocket attacks on U.S. and allied facilities in Iraq and Syria and blows between Israel and Lebanon.

The U.S. has carried out attacks on militant groups in Yemen and Iraq, but Washington has sought to separate those efforts from its support of Israel.

Biden’s order declares a national emergency around the situation in the West Bank, particularly around “high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction.” There are dozens of such declarations in effect covering myriad topics, with the oldest declared by President Jimmy Carter in 1979.

In a letter to Congress, Biden said the violence “has reached intolerable levels.”

“These actions undermine the foreign policy objectives of the United States, including the viability of a two-state solution and ensuring Israelis and Palestinians can attain equal measures of security, prosperity, and freedom,” Biden wrote.

Although many Israelis also hold U.S. citizenship, Biden’s order is targeted only to “any foreign person.”

The State Department issued visa restrictions in December on “dozens” of Israeli settlers in the West Bank in response to violence. Thursday’s order expands the State Department’s authority to issue financial sanctions targeting individuals responsible for, complicit in or engaged in destabilizing activities. 

Four people were targeted in the first batch of sanctions for actions including the initiation of a riot, assaulting and injuring Palestinian civilians, destroying property and attacking farmers and activists with stones and clubs.

“There is no justification for extremist violence against civilians, whatever their national origin, ethnicity, or religion,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. “Israel must do more to stop violence against civilians in the West Bank and hold accountable those responsible for it.”

State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Israel had previously prosecuted three of the individuals for actions in the West Bank. He stopped short of criticizing the Israeli justice system.

“We thought it was appropriate to take additional U.S. government action,” he said.

U.S. Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, applauded the executive order.

“I’m glad to see the [administration] take more steps to counter settler violence against Palestinians,” he wrote online. “Allowing extremist violence in the West Bank to proliferate will further destabilize the region and undermine the path to a two-state solution, so it’s critical we address these threats.”

Follow @TheNolanStout

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Email *

Submit