President Biden signed an executive order on Thursday that imposes sanctions on four West Bank settlers who have committed violence against Palestinians. The order marks the most significant action Biden has taken against Israelis amid criticism over U.S. backing for Israel’s war in Gaza.
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The executive order mirrors sanctions imposed on individuals designated as terrorists, two senior administration officials said on a call with reporters Thursday. It will block the settlers from accessing all U.S. property and assets or from engaging with the American financial system.
The settlers will not be allowed to send money to the United States or have anyone act on their behalf, the officials said. The order also prevents any American from contributing money, goods or services to those sanctioned, the officials said.
The financial sanctions follow an announcement in early December restricting U.S. visas for people believed to have been involved in settler violence, as well as their immediate family members. Neither those restrictions, nor the sanctions announced on Wednesday affect the many U.S. citizen settlers.
Those sanctioned include individuals whose actions led to the death of a Palestinian civilian, and others who have set buildings on fire, caused property damage, assaulted Palestinian farmers and carried out attacks with stones that caused serious injuries, according to one of the senior officials. The sanctioned settlers have also tried to break into windows and passing vehicles, blocked roads and used other forms of intimidation.
Even before the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks — in which militants rampaged through Israel’s border fence with Gaza and killed 1,200 Israelis — the West Bank had recorded its deadliest year to date.
But the violence has markedly increased since then, with 370 Palestinians, 94 of them children, killed between Oct. 7 and Jan. 31 across the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Among the dead are 360 people killed by Israeli forces, eight by Israeli settlers and two by either Israeli forces or settlers.
The Biden administration has been concerned about the combustible situation in the West Bank escalating into another front in the Israel-Gaza war, in which more than 26,000 Palestinians have been killed. Biden has tightly embraced Israel since Oct. 7, even as its punishing military campaign — which has created a humanitarian catastrophe in the 25-mile land strip and put Gaza’s more than 2 million residents at risk of starvation and disease — has invited international condemnation.
Despite rising pressure from his party to call for a cease-fire and distance himself from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden has largely resisted criticizing Israel. Thursday’s executive order marks the first significant action he has been willing to take against Israelis in the nearly four-month-old war.
Cut through the 2024 election noise. Get The Campaign Moment newsletter.
The executive order mirrors sanctions imposed on individuals designated as terrorists, two senior administration officials said on a call with reporters Thursday. It will block the settlers from accessing all U.S. property and assets or from engaging with the American financial system.
The settlers will not be allowed to send money to the United States or have anyone act on their behalf, the officials said. The order also prevents any American from contributing money, goods or services to those sanctioned, the officials said.
The financial sanctions follow an announcement in early December restricting U.S. visas for people believed to have been involved in settler violence, as well as their immediate family members. Neither those restrictions, nor the sanctions announced on Wednesday affect the many U.S. citizen settlers.
Those sanctioned include individuals whose actions led to the death of a Palestinian civilian, and others who have set buildings on fire, caused property damage, assaulted Palestinian farmers and carried out attacks with stones that caused serious injuries, according to one of the senior officials. The sanctioned settlers have also tried to break into windows and passing vehicles, blocked roads and used other forms of intimidation.
Even before the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks — in which militants rampaged through Israel’s border fence with Gaza and killed 1,200 Israelis — the West Bank had recorded its deadliest year to date.
But the violence has markedly increased since then, with 370 Palestinians, 94 of them children, killed between Oct. 7 and Jan. 31 across the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Among the dead are 360 people killed by Israeli forces, eight by Israeli settlers and two by either Israeli forces or settlers.
The Biden administration has been concerned about the combustible situation in the West Bank escalating into another front in the Israel-Gaza war, in which more than 26,000 Palestinians have been killed. Biden has tightly embraced Israel since Oct. 7, even as its punishing military campaign — which has created a humanitarian catastrophe in the 25-mile land strip and put Gaza’s more than 2 million residents at risk of starvation and disease — has invited international condemnation.
Despite rising pressure from his party to call for a cease-fire and distance himself from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden has largely resisted criticizing Israel. Thursday’s executive order marks the first significant action he has been willing to take against Israelis in the nearly four-month-old war.
