WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on three extremist Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, accused of harassing and attacking Palestinians to pressure them to leave their country. Two farms that the settlers run were also targeted in this action that is likely to increase already heightened tensions between the US and Israel over the Gaza war.
The announcement from the State Department and Treasury Department comes at a time of increasing friction between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose far-right government has reacted angrily to previous sanctions imposed on settlers in the West Bank.
US officials from Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have repeatedly expressed concern about the increase in settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel has said it is taking action against such attacks and has argued the sanctions are unnecessary.
The immediate impact of Thursday’s sanctions was not clear because it is uncertain whether any of the settlers or their farms have assets in U.S. jurisdictions. However, a previous round of sanctions against settlers has spooked Israeli banks that do business with them. The sanctions include travel bans on the targeted individuals.
The State Department has announced sanctions against settler Zvi Bar Yosef and his outpost known as the Zvis Farm. Bar Yosef, currently under sanction in Britain, is accused of violent crackdowns on Palestinians in the West Bank.
Moshe Sharvit, a settler already under sanctions in Britain, is said to have attacked Palestinians and Israeli human rights activists near his outpost, known as Moshes Farm, which is now also under US sanctions.
British officials said in February that Sharvit and another settler threatened Palestinian families at gunpoint and destroyed property as part of a “targeted and calculated effort to displace Palestinian communities.”
In addition, sanctions were imposed on Neriya Ben Pazi, who attacked and expelled Palestinian shepherds from hundreds of hectares of land as recently as August 2023.
The US sanctions block the men and their outposts from using the US financial system and prevent US citizens from interacting with them.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement that “there is no justification for extremist violence against civilians or the expulsion of families from their homes, regardless of their national origin, ethnicity, race or religion.”
In February, President Joe Biden issued an executive order targeting Israeli settlers in the West Bank accused of attacking Palestinians and Israeli peace activists in the occupied territory.
Currently, nine people and their property have been sanctioned under the new executive order targeting settlers in the West Bank, according to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control database.