Biden Administration Imposes New Sanctions on Israeli Settlement Groups Amid Gaza War
The Biden administration announced a new round of sanctions Monday targeting individuals and organizations involved in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, even as the US continues to provide substantial military aid to Israel during its ongoing war on Gaza, Al Jazeera reports.
The US Treasury Department sanctioned Amana, a prominent settlement development organization described as a “key part of the Israeli extremist settlement movement,” and its subsidiary, Binyanei Bar Amana Ltd. The Treasury stated that these entities support settlements and farms from which settlers perpetrate violence against Palestinians.
Simultaneously, the State Department imposed sanctions on three individuals and another organization for their roles in violence against civilians and property destruction in the West Bank. Those sanctioned include Shabtai Koshlevsky, vice president and co-founder of the already-sanctioned Hashomer Yosh group, and Zohar Sabah, who the State Department accused of threats and acts of violence against Palestinians, including an attack on a primary school near Jericho.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller emphasized that the Biden administration has repeatedly urged Israel to take action against settler violence and hold perpetrators accountable. He stated that in the absence of such Israeli action, the US would continue to impose its own sanctions, noting that 33 individuals and entities have been sanctioned over the past 10 months.
The sanctions, which freeze assets in the US and prohibit US citizens from conducting business with the targeted entities, come amidst a surge in Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, overshadowed by the ongoing conflict in Gaza, where over 43,900 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023.
While human rights groups have welcomed the sanctions, many argue they are insufficient, as the Israeli government itself backs the settlements. Last week, dozens of US lawmakers urged the Biden administration to sanction high-ranking Israeli government officials for their alleged roles in the violence.
The timing of these sanctions is significant, as President-elect Donald Trump, who assumes office in January, has signaled a more lenient approach to Israeli settlements. Concerns are growing that the incoming Trump administration could overturn the Biden-era sanctions. Trump’s administration previously reversed the long-standing US position that Israeli settlements are illegal, a decision later reversed by the Biden administration. Further fueling these concerns is Trump’s appointment of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee as US ambassador to Israel. Huckabee, a prominent Christian evangelical, has previously downplayed the significance of Israeli settlements and the occupation of the West Bank.
Adding to the shift in US-Israel relations, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed American-Israeli Yechiel Leiter, a staunch supporter of settlements and a former member of the Jewish Defense League (a group designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center), as Israel’s ambassador to the US under the incoming Trump administration. Analysts interpret these appointments as signaling a potential escalation of settlement activity and a more permissive US stance under the Trump administration.
