US President Joe Biden will sign today (Thursday) a presidential order that allows the imposition of new sanctions on settlers who are involved in attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank. Senior American officials said that as part of the move, sanctions will be imposed today on four settlers. The presidential order allows the imposition of sanctions in the future also against Israeli politicians or government officials who are involved in attacks on Palestinian civilians.
why is it important:
The presidential order is unprecedented and is the most significant move that any American administration has ever made to deal with settler violence against Palestinian citizens in the West Bank.
Senior American officials said that the move reflects the fact that the Biden administration believes that attacks by extremist settlers against Palestinians have reached levels that pose a threat to security in the West Bank and the entire Middle East and undermine the foreign policy goals of the United States, especially the possibility of implementing the two-state solution.
The Israeli government claims that the American claims regarding violence by settlers against Palestinians are "inflated" and that in the last two months Israel has taken steps that have resulted in a significant decrease in the number of attacks of this type.
In the news center:
The Biden administration has expressed concern dozens of times and to several Israeli governments in the past three years about settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
After there was a sharp increase in the number and severity of these attacks after the October 7th attack, President Biden raised the issue in phone calls with Netanyahu and even spoke publicly on the issue.
American Secretary of State Lincoln, Defense Secretary Austin, National Security Advisor Sullivan and other American officials raised the issue several times with their Israeli counterparts in the last three months.
In November, Biden sent a presidential memorandum to the American foreign and treasury ministers in which he asked them to prepare possible sanctions against individuals and entities involved in attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank.
A few weeks later, Blinken announced that he had decided to ban the entry into the US of several dozen settlers who were involved in attacks against Palestinians.
all the details:
Senior American officials said that the first round of sanctions imposed under the new presidential order will include four Israeli settlers who, according to the information in the hands of the US, were directly involved in attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank and in systematic activity that resulted in the forced displacement of Palestinian communities.
If those four settlers have assets or bank accounts in the USA they will be frozen, there will be a ban on trading with them or transferring funds to them through the American banking system and they will not be able to enter the USA.
The new presidential decree allows the administration to impose additional sanctions against people who directed their participation in acts of violence or threats of violence against Palestinian guests, in the intimidation of Palestinians in an attempt to make them leave their homes, in the destruction or confiscation of property of Palestinian citizens or in acts of terrorism against Palestinian citizens, they said. American officials.
One of the significant clauses in the new presidential decree will allow in the future to also impose sanctions on Israeli politicians and government officials who are directly or indirectly involved in acts of violence against Palestinian citizens.
The order states that people "who direct, carry out, implement, enforce or refrain from enforcing policies in a way that threatens peace, security and stability in the West Bank" may be exposed to American sanctions.
The order also allows sanctions to be imposed on people who provide support or financial aid to settlers who have carried out violent attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, according to senior American officials.
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Behind the Scenes:
Senior American officials said that the White House, the State Department and the US Treasury Department worked on the presidential order in secret for several weeks. The Biden administration informed Israel about the new order only today (Thursday) - shortly before its publication.
At one point, the administration considered including ministers Itamar Ben Gabir and Bezalel Smotrich in the list of people to be sanctioned, but finally decided to leave them off the list and focus at this stage on people who carried out attacks themselves, according to senior American officials.
reminder:
Since the October 7 attack, the Biden administration has carried out five rounds of imposing sanctions on dozens of Hamas members - from the organization's leadership to those involved in collecting funds for the organization around the world.
between the lines:
The timing of the publication of the new presidential order is also related to internal politics in the US and the White House's attempt to appease the Arab and Muslim community in the US, many of which harshly criticized Biden's policy towards the war in Gaza and claimed that they would not vote for him in the elections in November.
Today (Thursday) Biden is visiting Detroit, Michigan - seat of one of the largest Arab-American communities in the US - and is expected to deliver a speech in which he is expected to address the war in Gaza and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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