Four Israeli settlers accused of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank have received sanctions from US President Joe Biden, who approved a broad executive order authorising the sanctions on Thursday, saying violence in the West Bank had reached “intolerable levels”.
According to the sanctions, the four accused Israeli citizens will be banned from accessing all US property, assets and the American financial system.
The rare sanctions against the Israeli citizens were imposed as Mr Biden travelled to the state of Michigan, which has a large Arab-American population that has expressed concerns over Biden’s support for Israel.
The Arab American Institute, an advocacy group, earlier said that since the start of the conflict, support by Arab Americans for the Democratic Party has plummeted from 59% in 2020 to just 17%.
On Thursday, a senior official in the Biden administration said the president had consistently shown dismay with Israel about violence by settlers.
The executive order stipulates how the US will respond to further attacks in the West Bank, and shows a more strident measure compared to visa restrictions it imposed on some individuals late last year.
“The situation in the West Bank – in particular high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction – has reached intolerable levels and constitutes a serious threat to the peace, security and stability,” Mr Biden said in the order.
Shortly after he announced the move, Israel signalled its dissatisfaction and described the majority of West Bank settlers as “law-abiding”.
“Israel takes action against all law-breakers everywhere, and therefore there is no need for unusual measures on the issue,” a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.
The sanctions show that the US does not approve of certain actions of the Israeli citizens which escalated when war broke out after Hamas attacked and killed 1200 Israeli citizens and abducted over 200 on October 7 2023.
In recent times, there have been some disagreements between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the issues of a two-state solution to the Palestinian question. Biden believes in the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel – known as a “two-state solution” for stability to reign in the region.
However, Netanyahu rejected the idea, which prompted the White House to acknowledge last month that the US and Israeli governments “clearly see things differently.”
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