Biden Administration Levies New Sanctions on Israeli Settlers; Trump’s Incoming Team Signals Potential Reversal
The outgoing Biden-Harris administration announced new sanctions against three Israeli entities and three individuals, citing their involvement in dispossessing Palestinians of land and engaging in violence against them, Bloomberg reports.
The move, the latest in a series of actions targeting Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, is likely to be short-lived given President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration and its stated positions.
The State Department said the sanctions were imposed for actions that “further destabilize conditions in the West Bank and support extremist violence in the region.”
“We once again call on the government of Israel to take action and hold accountable those responsible for or complicit in violence, forced displacement and the dispossession of private land,” spokesman Matthew Miller said.
These sanctions follow similar measures enacted in October.
This action stands in contrast to the approach expected from the incoming Trump administration. President-elect Trump has reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “do what you have to do” regarding the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, a stark departure from President Biden’s policy of conditional support coupled with calls for ceasefires and support for a future Palestinian state.
Several of Trump’s national security nominees hold views supportive of Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank, considered illegal under international law. His choice for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, appeared to endorse extending Israeli sovereignty to West Bank settlements in a 2018 speech. Similarly, Mike Huckabee, nominated to be US Ambassador to Israel, publicly expressed a desire to own a holiday home in a West Bank settlement in 2018, according to The Hill.
