Biden’s sanctions target extremist Israeli settlers for violence against Palestinians

The Biden administration announced Thursday it is imposing sanctions against four Israelis involved in attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, penalties issued under a new executive order aimed at cracking down on extremist Israeli settlers. 

President Biden issued the executive order giving the State Department and Treasury Department the authority to sanction the individuals, employing a U.S. tool often directed at criminals, terrorists and human rights abusers. 

The sanctions against the blacklisted individuals block their access to any property or interests held in the U.S., imposes a visa ban on entry to the U.S., and prohibits any American from transacting with the sanctioned person. 

A senior administration official said the decision to issue the executive order was aimed at promoting “peace, security, and dignity,” in the West Bank, and is part of the administration’s larger goals of working toward establishing a Palestinian state while also supporting Israel’s war to eliminate Hamas in the Gaza Strip. 

Violence in the West Bank over the course of 2023 rose to some of its highest levels in years, including attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, Palestinian terrorist attacks against Israelis, and Israeli security raids against terrorist threats. 

Hamas’s attack against Israel in October — where about 1,200 people were massacred and about 240 taken hostage, with more than 100 still in captivity — fueled already-high levels of violence in the West Bank, a territory divided to varying degrees among Israeli and Palestinian control.

In particular, the targets of the U.S. sanctions are extremist Israelis using violence to forcibly settle land in the West Bank and displace Palestinians living there. 

The United Nations office for human rights said in a report in December that it had documented 367 attacks by Israeli settlers resulting in casualties or property damage and more than 1,200 people displaced because of settler violence. At least seven Palestinian men and one child were killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank between Oct. 7 and Dec. 27. The report also notes that only two settlers were documented as arrested, and no indictments were filed as of publication of the report.

A senior Biden administration official said the Israeli government had been notified ahead of the announcement. 

“This is an important step to directly address the threats to U.S. national security and regional security arising from extremist violence in the West Bank,” the official said, “and underscores the extent to which the administration takes this threat seriously.”

A second senior administration official said that the executive order is “nondiscriminatory” to apply to “foreign nationals,” and that can include Israelis and Palestinians, but outlined the violent acts documented for the individuals sanctioned Thursday.

The State Department named the sanctioned individuals as David Chai Chasdai, who is described as having initiated and led a riot, which involved setting vehicles and buildings on fire, assaulting civilians and causing damage to property, with the actions resulting in the death of a Palestinian civilian.

Another individual, Einan Tanjil, was sanctioned for assaulting farmers and Israeli activists and for attacking people with stones and clubs that resulted in injuries that required medical treatment.

The State Department said that Shalom Zicherman, according to video evidence, assaulted Israeli activists and their vehicles in the West Bank, blocking them on the street, and attempted to break the windows of passing vehicles with activists inside.  Zicherman cornered at least two of the activists and injured both, State said. 

And the U.S. sanctioned Yinon Levi, is described by State as leading a group of settlers who engaged in actions creating an atmosphere of fear in the West Bank.

The State Department said Levi regularly led groups of settlers from the Meitarim Farm outpost that assaulted Palestinian and Bedouin civilians, threatened them with additional violence if they did not leave their homes, burned their fields, and destroyed their property.  Levi and other settlers at Meitarim Farm have repeatedly attacked multiple communities within the West Bank, State said.

The sanctions issued Thursday build on a move by Biden in December, issuing visa bans on Israeli settlers whom it identified as involved in violence against Palestinians or their property, prohibiting their entry to the U.S. and possibly that of entry of their family members, although no names were published.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a statement from his office, said the “majority of the settlers” in the West Bank are “law-abiding citizens.”

“Israel acts against all lawbreakers everywhere. There is no room for exceptional measures in this regard,” read the statement, which was translated from Hebrew.

The former Trump administration had issued guidance that they didn’t view Israeli settlements as de facto in violation of international law, although the International Court of Justice, the top court of the United Nations, ruled in 2004 that the settlements are illegal.

This story was updated at 1:54 p.m.