President Biden on Thursday imposed sanctions on Israeli settlers in the West Bank after a 17-year-old American was shot and killed there last month.
“Extremist settler violence” will reach record levels in the West Bank in 2023, according to a White House executive order. The sanctions bar dozens of settlers and their families from traveling to or doing business in the United States.
The order specifically applies to settlers who engage in “acts or threats of violence against civilians, intimidate and force civilians from their homes, destroy or seize property, or engage in terrorist activities in the West Bank.”
The move comes after Abdel Jabbar, a 17-year-old American citizen, was allegedly shot and killed by an Israeli settler while visiting the West Bank last month. Jabbar’s family said he was visiting the area to learn more about Palestinian traditions.
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President Biden on Thursday imposed sanctions on Israeli settlers in the West Bank after a 17-year-old American was shot and killed there last month. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo)
Jabbar was killed while driving with his friend Mohamed Salameh, 16. At least 10 shots were fired from the rear of the vehicle, hitting Jabar and causing the vehicle to roll over.
Salameh survived and maintains the shooting was unprovoked. Israeli police said the shooting targeted “people who were said to be carrying out rock-throwing activities along Highway 60.” Police have not identified the shooter, but say off-duty police officers, soldiers and civilians were involved in the incident.
Jabbar’s father denied claims that his son was throwing stones at the road, but added that even if he had, “so what?”
“If they were throwing stones at a distance of 150 meters to the road, what would happen to the tank? Or the jeep? Or the car full of soldiers? Just because a man threw a stone, you would shoot the car 10 times. right” ? ” his father, Hafez Abdel Jabbar, told NBC News.
In December, the State Department imposed other visa restrictions on West Bank settlers. The Biden administration is relying heavily on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to crack down on the group.
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“The United States has consistently opposed actions that undermine stability in the West Bank, including attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians and attacks by Palestinians on Israelis,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. .
“We have stressed the need for the Israeli government to do more to hold extremist settlers responsible for violent attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, as President Biden has reiterated. “These attacks are unacceptable,” he added.
The White House’s announcement about the Biden executive order stated that “extremist settler violence” reached record levels in the West Bank in 2023.
A cabinet minister in Netanyahu’s government reacted to Biden’s move with derision on Thursday. Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Smotrich claimed that accusations of settler violence were “anti-Semitic lies.”
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Mr. Smotrich vowed to continue promoting reconciliation in the West Bank, adding: “If the United States imposes sanctions on me in return, so be it.”
The Biden administration is relying heavily on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to crack down on Israeli settlers in the West Bank. (Amos Ben Gershom (GPO)/Anadolu, via Getty Images)
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Israel’s Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant announced that the country’s military will be prohibited from rebuilding Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip after the war. Some Israeli politicians have called for the settlements, which were originally demolished when Israel ceded the territory in 2005, to be rebuilt.
