United States President, Donald Trump has issued an executive order lifting sanctions against violent Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
The sanctions were imposed by his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, via an executive order in February.
Biden’s actions paved the way for the US Departments of State and the Treasury to sanction several far-right individuals and groups accused of perpetrating violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967 despite international law, freezing their US assets and barring US bodies and individuals from commercial relationships with them.
US sanctions on settlers landed after the Biden administration repeatedly urged the Israeli government to take action to hold settlers to account for actions that Washington believed set back hopes for a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians.
Since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, which Palestinians want as the core of an independent state. Israel has built settlements there, which are illegal under international law.
Israel disputes this and cites historical and biblical ties to the land.
As much of the world’s attention has focused on the war in Gaza, growing violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank and land grabs in the occupied territory have raised concerns among some of Israel’s Western allies.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, at least 860 Palestinians, including 175 children, have been killed and more than 6,700 wounded in attacks by the Israeli army and settlers across the West Bank.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, “Lifting sanctions on extremist settlers encourages them to commit more crimes against our people.”
Israeli officials, on the other hand, welcomed Trump’s “historic decision” to reverse the sanctions.
According to Israeli media, Yossi Dagan, Head of the Northern West Bank Settlements Council, said that the reversal of the “scandalous sanctions” was “a political message that the United States has returned to being our friend.”
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right former National Security Minister said on X, “This is a righting of an injustice of many years, in which distorted policies were pursued by the American administration and also by local elements who confused lovers with enemies.”
His ally, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, said that Trump’s stand shows his “deep connection to the Jewish people and our historic right to our land.”
“These sanctions were a serious act of blatant foreign interference in the internal affairs of the state of Israel and harmed the principles of democracy and the mutual relationship between the two friendly countries.”
Bezalel Smotrich
Israeli Settlers Attack West Bank Villages
Meanwhile, Israeli settlers set vehicles and properties on fire under the protection of Israeli forces while also injuring at least 21 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank.
It followed Trump’s decision to lift sanctions.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Palestine expressed alarm at the “wave of renewed violence” by Israeli settlers and armed forces in the occupied West Bank.
The OHCHR also said that the violence was accompanied by reinforced restrictions on Palestinians’ freedom of movement, including the closure of checkpoints and installation of new gates, resulting in entire communities being locked in.
Highlighting multiple recent settler attacks on Palestinian villages as well as Monday’s raid in several West Bank towns by Israeli forces, which killed a Palestinian teenager, the OHCHR also said it was concerned about Israel’s plans to expand and increase operations in the Palestinian territory.
