Lame-duck Biden sanctions Israeli ‘settlers’ and NGOs

JERUSALEM – Over the last few days or so, those wondering whether the Biden administration would take out some of its frustration at Donald J. Trump’s blow-out election victory, as well as a lingering dislike of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – whom they tried so desperately to remove from office – on the state he leads, received their answer.

On Monday, Biden and his team imposed a new round of sanctions against three Israeli individuals and three organizations, including the Amana development group, which it accuses of undermining “peace, security and stability” in Judea and Samaria.

Today the U.S. imposed sanctions on six targets for violence against civilians and destruction and dispossession of property in the West Bank. The U.S. urges Israel to take action against those causing human suffering and undermining peace in the region.

— Matthew Miller (@StateDeptSpox) November 18, 2024

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the sanctions were in response to the six targets for “violence against civilians and destruction and dispossession of property in the West Bank [sic].”

He further called on Jerusalem to “take action and hold accountable those responsible for or complicit in violence, forced displacement, and the dispossession of private land.”

This is a particularly sticky issue upon which to focus; as was pointed out in WND’s article “Can a clash between competing claims be prevented in Judea and Samaria?” https://www.wnd.com/2024/11/can-a-clash-between-competing-claims-be-prevented-in-judea-and-samaria/

It argued there are significant parts of Judea and Samaria, which are not part of Palestinian Authority-administered land according to current international agreements, and upon which there are illegal Arab structures.

One of the main targets of the sanctions is the construction company Amana, whose founder is Ze’ev Hever.

“The sanctions we were informed of today are a result of baseless slanders hurled at Amana by hostile and extreme elements. Had the American administration bothered to examine them, rather than rely on such malicious publications, it would have discovered that they indeed lack factual basis and would have refrained from acting against us,” Hever said, according to Israeli news site Arutz 7.

He added that despite the challenges the settlement movement has faced over the last few years including building freezes under pressure from the Biden administration, he fully expected the sanctions to be reversed shortly after Trump assumes office.

Canada, which seems to have entirely become captured by a pro-Palestinian tilt that has infected the entire country very much including the educational system, imposed sanctions on Amana in June. In addition to Amana, the Biden administration announced it had imposed sanctions on Amana’s subsidiary Binyanei Bar Amana and on the Judean Mountains Company, which are involved in construction throughout Judea and Samaria.

Additionally, sanctions were imposed on three Israelis. Shabtai Kushlevski was sanctioned for his activities in the organization Hashomer Yosh, which itself has been sanctioned in the past. This organization views its role – like its more illustrious forebear did in the Yishuv pre-state period – to protect farmers and farmland from attacks from Arabs. Meanwhile, the organization’s opponents claim it is a violent driver of settler land theft in Judea and Samaria (except they would use the term West Bank).

Itamar Yehuda Levi was sanctioned for his activities in the construction company Eyal Judean Mountains Company, as well as Zohar Sabah from the town of Mevo’ot Yericho, who was also implicated in the attack on the Al-Ka’abneh elementary school near Jericho in September 2024 which injured several Palestinians at the school, Arutz 7 reported.

Samaria Regional Council governor Yossi Dagan said he wanted to work with the incoming Trump administration to remove the sanctions, and he also had words of criticism for Netanyahu, whom he accused of not pushing back hard enough against the move.

“The decision to impose sanctions on the Amana company – this is the swan song of the Biden administration,” Dagan stated. “It is an act hostile and cynical toward the only democracy in the Middle East, a government that dares to extort its strategic partner, the state of Israel, which is fighting for its survival, through denial of armaments, now dares to attack the bodies and organizations of the State of Israel.”

On Feb. 1, U.S. President Joe Biden issued Executive Order 14115, sanctioning “persons undermining peace, security and stability in the West Bank [sic].” The order cited “high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages and property destruction.” In addition, it blocks property and interests held in America which belong to any designated individual and prohibits U.S. citizens from contributing or providing funds, goods and services to or to benefit those designated.

Shortly following its implementation, the U.S. embassy in Israel would neither confirm the source nor the methodology used to determine who falls under the executive order. Israeli investigative journalist Elchanan Groner of the Hakol HaYehudi news site – who has found himself blocked on the X platform – told Israel’s Channel 14 news that the sanctions are, in fact, based on statistics compiled by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), which is known to gather a significant amount of data on so-called “settler-related violence,” according to journalist Josh Hasten.

OCHA, in whose interests it is to inflate the statistics regarding “settler violence,” admitted the category labeled “Incidents involving Israeli settlers” included “Palestinians killed or injured during attacks or alleged attacks they perpetrated against Israeli settlers.”

The announcement of sanctions follows reporting from Thursday in which 15 U.S. senators and 68 members of the House of Representatives – all from the Democratic Party – sent a letter to President Biden calling on him to impose sanctions on Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, the Finance and National Security ministers, respectively. In addition, they called for the imposition of sanctions on the Regavim Movement, on the ground that Regavim’s “incitement” has resulted in violence, and its activities seek to “prevent Palestinian construction in the West Bank” – actions that resulted in the forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes.”

A Regavim press release muscularly countered these claims. “The sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on civil society organizations, based solely on their political orientation, is tantamount to the banning of free speech. This is the definition of dictatorship. The outgoing administration has imposed sanctions on a host of Israeli individuals and organizations at the forefront of the settlement enterprise, as well as grassroots protest movements whose only “sin” is their opposition to current U.S. policy.”

The movement also pointed out the use of sanctions is ordinarily reserved for “last-ditch action against drug lords, internationally sanctioned criminals, terrorists and dictators.” They argued its use against ordinary civilians of an allied dictatorship was unprecedented, labeling it a “disgrace to the Biden administration.”

“The lame ducks in Congress are using their final moments of power to amplify and expand the most anti-democratic maneuver of the Biden Administration. As a result of the sanctions imposed under Executive Order 14115, President Biden will be judged by history for the bald-faced attempt to prevent public debate, to silence political opponents, to deny freedom of speech and to make reasoned debate impossible.”

It is probable the incoming Trump administration – especially if the pick of Mike Huckabee as U.S. ambassador to Israel is a barometer of the direction of travel – will quickly dismantle the sanctions against these individuals and groups. And whether there is a ceasefire in Gaza and/ or Lebanon, the issue of Jewish sovereignty over Judea and Samaria will almost certainly become an increasingly contested issue over the length of the Trump presidency.