US issues anti-settler violence order, 'Israel' says 'no room' for it
6 Min Read
US President Joe Biden has issued an executive order targeting Israeli settlers who had been identified as engaging in settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
-
A number of destroyed vehicles in Huwara, Nablus, after it was attacked by Israeli settlers on February 26, 2023. (Social media)
US President Joe Biden issued an executive order on Thursday in response to the continued calls to put an end to increased violence in which Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank commit crimes against Palestinians.
According to claims by the White House National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, Biden's executive order creates a framework for implementing financial sanctions and visa restrictions on individuals identified to have engaged in acts of aggression or intimidation against Palestinians, including the seizure of their property.
"Today’s actions seek to promote peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike," Sullivan claimed.
The executive order results in the freezing of any assets held in the United States by the targeted individuals and generally prohibits Americans from engaging in transactions with them.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the State Department has moved to sanction four Israelis involved in extremist settler activities following President Joe Biden's executive order today.
The Department named four people who it said were involved in settler-led attacks on Palestinians: David Chai Chasdai, Einan Tanjil, Shalom Zicherman, and Yinon Levi. There can be no justification for extremist violence "whatever their national origin, ethnicity, or religion," 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," Blinken said.
"The United States will continue to take actions to advance the foreign policy objectives of the United States, including the viability of a two-state solution, and is committed to the safety, security, and dignity of Israelis and Palestinians alike," he added.
An annual report by an Israeli NGO, Yesh Din, details Israeli police investigations and responses to settler violence in the #WestBank spanning from 2005 to 2023.
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) January 27, 2024
The study's findings underscores a consistent failure by Israeli police to fulfill its obligation of safeguarding… pic.twitter.com/TNgBhgOtxJ
Calling the deliberate crimes "actions", a senior US official claimed that "these actions"pose a grave threat to peace, security, stability in the West Bank, Israel, and the Middle East region, and they also obstruct the realization of ultimately an independent Palestinian state existing side by side with the state of Israel."
Netanayahu's office says there is 'no room' for Biden's order
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's office said there is "no room" for Biden's order on extremist settlers, claiming that "Israel" "acts against all lawbreakers."
The Prime Minister's office added in a statement on X that "there is no room for unusual measures in this regard."
Biden's order today comes weeks after an American teenager was shot and killed during a visit to the occupied West Bank, where a settler attacked him during a picnic with friends.
Read next: West Bank martyr's father slams US support for 'Israel' during funeral
"The absolute majority of the settlers in Judea and Samaria are law-abiding citizens, many of whom are currently fighting regularly and in the reserves for the defense of Israel," the statement claimed.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported there were 494 settler attacks against Palestinians from Oct. 7 to Jan. 31, including at least 388 incidents that resulted in damage to Palestinian property.
The executive order, which includes visa bans for foreign nationals, would sanction violent Israeli settlers "responsible for or complicit in" attacks on Palestinians or Palestinian property.
Playing the "anti-Semitism" card for the millionth time, extremist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich responded to Biden's order, saying, "The 'settler violence' campaign is an antisemitic lie that enemies of Israel disseminate with the goal of smearing the pioneering settlers and settlement enterprise, and to harm them and thus smear the entire State of Israel."
Palestinian MFA wants settler organizations on terror list
Earlier, the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates criticized the rise of violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied territories, demanding that the groups be listed as international terrorist organizations.
In a Wednesday statement, the Ministry called for adding Israeli settler organizations to international terror lists as this might hinder them from expanding their occupation of Palestine.
The statement detailed that “the aim is to link the international and American stance rejecting the terrorism of settler militias with sanctions to compel "Israel" to dismantle and disarm them."
The current Israeli government, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, has adopted a fierce, violent expansionist policy in the occupied West Bank. Arming settlers with assault rifles has been a trademark of the occupation's Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
Head of the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, Moayad Shaaban, told reporters in Ramallah that “the occupation authorities and their settlers carried out 12,161 attacks, including 5,308 after October 7."
Additionally, the occupation has protected extremists who have desecrated religious sanctities in al-Quds. All previously mentioned violations, among others, motivated the Palestinian Resistance in the Gaza Strip to launch Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, which exposed the occupation's fragility.
Recently, Anadolu Agency reported that Israeli authorities and illegal settlers engaged in over 12,000 attacks in the last year.
While all Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, the occupying authority has increased settlement development in flagrant disregard of UNSC resolutions.
Shaaban detailed that Israeli settlers were responsible for 2,410 of the attacks, adding that 25 Bedouin villages were uprooted in the West Bank and the eastern part of al-Quds this year, with 22 of them following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. The villages include 266 households and a total population of 1,517 Palestinians.
According to the official, 21,731 trees were chopped down and damaged during the last year, including 18,964 olive trees, and Israeli officials seized about 50,000 dunams of land under different pretexts.
Read more: Illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank on the rise
