The US State Department on Thursday announced financial sanctions against four Israelis for their role in contributing to violence and destabilization in the West Bank.
The announcement came hours after President Biden issued an executive order authorizing the United States to impose financial sanctions on foreign nationals whose actions threaten peace, security, and stability in the West Bank.
“Today, the State Department imposed financial sanctions on four Israelis for destabilizing conduct in the West Bank,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a press conference. “Today’s action builds on steps we took in December to impose visa restrictions on dozens of individuals for contributing to violence and instability in the West Bank.”
Biden on Thursday imposed sanctions on Israeli settlers in the West Bank after a 17-year-old American was shot and killed there in January.
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State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the United States imposed financial sanctions on four Israelis on Thursday after President Biden issued an executive order authorizing the sanctions. (Pool/Fox News)
“Extremist settler violence” reached record levels in the West Bank in 2023, according to a White House announcement on the executive order. The sanctions bar dozens of settlers and their families from traveling to or doing business in the United States.
Biden’s order applies to settlers who have committed “acts of violence or intimidation against civilians, intimidation and removal of civilians from their homes, destruction or seizure of property, or terrorist activities in the West Bank.”
The move comes after Abeder Jabbar, a 17-year-old American citizen, was allegedly shot and killed by an Israeli settler while visiting the West Bank in January. Jabbar’s family said he was visiting the area to learn more about Palestinian heritage.
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President Biden on Thursday signed an executive order giving the United States the authority to impose financial sanctions against those who threaten peace and stability in the West Bank. (Steven Maturen/Getty Images)
“Extremist violence against civilians, regardless of their national origin, ethnicity or religion, cannot be justified,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
The US imposed financial sanctions on four individuals: David Chai Chasdai, Einan Tansil, Shalom Zicharman, and Inon Levy.
The State Department said Chasdai started and led a riot in Huwara that included torching vehicles and buildings, assaulting Palestinian civilians, and damaging property, resulting in the death of one Palestinian civilian.
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Israeli soldiers patrol the streets of the West Bank city of Nablus.
The State Department said Tanzil attacked Palestinian farmers and Israeli activists with stones and clubs, inflicting injuries that required medical treatment.
Zuckerman was seen on video assaulting Israeli activists and their vehicles in the West Bank and blocking them on the street. The State Department said Zickerman also attempted to break the windows of a passing vehicle with activists inside, cornering at least two activists and injuring them both.
Levi is accused of leading a group of settlers who terrorized the West Bank. The State Department also said Levy led settlers from the Meitalim farm outpost, assaulting Palestinian and Bedouin civilians, threatening them with further violence if they did not leave their homes, setting fires to fields, and destroying property. said.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement regarding the sanctions.
“The absolute majority of settlers in the West Bank are law-abiding citizens, many of whom are currently participating in the defense of Israel,” he said. “Israel takes action against those who break the law. There is therefore no room for exceptional measures in this regard.”
Netanyahu’s finance minister, Benjamin Smotrich, said accusations of settler violence were “anti-Semitic lies” and added that settlements in the region would continue.
“If the price is U.S. sanctions against me, so be it,” Smotrich said.
Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
