President Biden on Thursday issued an executive order targeting Israeli settlers in the West Bank who are attacking Palestinians in occupied territory.
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President Biden on Thursday issued an executive order targeting Israeli settlers in the West Bank who are attacking Palestinians in occupied territory.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
President Biden on Thursday issued an executive order targeting Israeli settlers in the West Bank who are attacking Palestinians in occupied territory.
The order names four people and lays the foundation for economic sanctions against settlers who carry out violent attacks since Hamas launched an attack on Israel three months ago, triggering an all-out war in Gaza. It turns out.
This order does not target U.S. citizens, who make up a significant portion of the settler community. Late last year, the Biden administration issued an order imposing a travel ban on Israeli settlers who have attacked Palestinians.
Although only four people are named, the order allows the United States to target Israeli settlers and freeze their assets and bank accounts in an effort to curb settler attacks on Palestinians living in the West Bank. This was the first such measure. Central board of the future Palestinian state.
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said, “This violence poses a serious threat to the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank, Israel, and the Middle East, and is a serious threat to national security and U.S. foreign policy interests.'' is threatening,” he said. In a statement.
Since the start of the Israeli-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, there have been nearly 500 attacks on Palestinians by settlers in the West Bank, which is largely occupied by Israeli forces, according to the United Nations.
Palestinian authorities and human rights groups say some Palestinians have been killed in the attacks, and settlers have also attacked property and set cars on fire.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters Thursday that three of the four people named in Thursday's executive order have been prosecuted by Israeli authorities.
Shalom Zicharman, one of the four people named in the order, was arrested in 2022 after being filmed attacking left-wing Israeli activists who were traveling to rendezvous near Hebron in the southern West Bank. He was charged by Israeli police with assault and criminal damage.According to Israeli newspapers, demonstrations were held to protest Palestinians being forced from their homes. Haaretz.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to Thursday's announcement by saying, “Israel takes action against everyone who breaks the law everywhere, so there is no room for exceptional measures in this regard.” .
But Doror Etkes, an Israeli expert on settler violence, welcomed the news. “The fact that these people are walking free and can do what they want in the West Bank shows that the Israeli law enforcement system does not like to deal with these kinds of people.” he said. NPR. “This is why we got to the point where the US government is sanctioning them,” he said, adding that all four “were involved in violent and violent attacks against Palestinians.”
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who himself lives in a West Bank settlement, said on X, formerly known as Twitter“'The campaign of settler violence is an anti-Semitic lie spread by Israel's enemies with the aim of discrediting the settler settlers.'”
