Biden announces new sanctions against 'extremist' Israeli settlers

The Biden administration on Monday announced sanctions against what it described as Israeli citizens and entities involved in the extremist settler movement in the West Bank, part of U.S. efforts to curb escalating violence targeting Palestinians in the territory.

The sanctions fall under an executive order President Biden issued in February to hold accountable violence carried out by extremist Israeli settlers in the West Bank targeting Palestinians, and the organizations supporting such violence. 

“We once again call on the Government of Israel to take action and hold accountable those responsible for or complicit in violence, forced displacement, and the dispossession of private land,” State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

“The United States will continue to promote accountability for those who further destabilize conditions in the West Bank and support extremist violence in the region.” 

While President-elect Trump, who has earlier endorsed Israeli settlements, will have the power to revoke Biden's executive order, it's not clear how easily sanctions on individuals and entities can be lifted. 

Among the new sanctions was the blacklisting of the group Amana, a settlement development organization, and a construction and development subsidiary, Binyanei Bar Amana Ltd. The United Kingdom and Canada also sanctioned the entities. 

“The United States, along with our allies and partners, remains committed to holding accountable those who seek to facilitate these destabilizing activities, which threaten the stability of the West Bank, Israel, and the wider region,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo.

The sanctions against Amana, in particular, follow a letter to President Biden last month from 88 Democrats in the House and Senate calling for blacklisting the entity for its role in providing “loans and building infrastructure for new outposts that are illegal under Israeli law, including agricultural farms that facilitate settler violence against Palestinian communities.” 

The lawmakers also called for Biden to sanction “radical” Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich for encouraging and facilitating the expansion of settlements, taking actions that weaken the Palestinian Authority – the governing body in the West Bank – and failing to address escalating violence carried out by Israelis against Palestinians. 

But the Biden administration has so far held back sanctions on the Israeli ministers. Among the other sanctions announced on Monday were against three individuals, Itamar Yehuda Levi, Shabtai Koshlevsky, and Zohar Sabah. 

Levi and Koshlevsky were sanctioned for heading entities that provide support to sanctioned businesses; and Sabah is described as having “engaged in threats and acts of violence against Palestinians, including in their homes, and demonstrated a pattern of destructiveness in the West Bank.”

The State Department said that Sabah “was also implicated in the attack on the Al-Ka’abneh elementary school near Jericho in September 2024 which injured several Palestinians at the school.”   

As a result of the sanctions, any property or interests held by the sanctioned individuals or entities in the U.S. are blocked and must be reported to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. Sanctioned individuals generally are blocked from entering the U.S. and Americans risk penalties if they are found doing business with the sanctioned individuals or entities.