US sanctions an Israeli NGO and settler official for violence in the West Bank

In Washington’s most recent attempt to penalize Jewish settlers it accuses of committing acts of extremist violence against Palestinians, the U.S. on Wednesday levied sanctions on a Jewish security official and an Israeli NGO.

An unofficial West Bank outpost that was already under sanctions received material support from Hashomer Yosh, a non-governmental organization that claims to assist in settlers’ protection, according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

According to Miller, the official is Yitzhak Levi Filant, a civilian security coordinator at the Yitzhar settlement who commanded a squad of armed settlers in February to erect roadblocks and go on patrols with the intention of driving out Palestinians from their property.

“Extremist settler violence in the West Bank causes intense human suffering, harms Israel’s security, and undermines the prospect for peace and stability in the region,” Miller stated in a press release.

Israel was urged in the statement to prosecute those culpable for the bloodshed. The penalties prohibit Americans from doing business with the individuals targeted and freeze their U.S. assets, preventing them from entering the country.

President Joe Biden’s executive order on West Bank violence, which was signed in February, will enforce the penalties. Sanctions against Jewish settlers and their backers, as well as a militant Palestinian group, have been applied using it.

Pro-Israel advocacy organizations and dual residents of the United States and Israel have filed a lawsuit against the directive, claiming that it punishes anyone who is against the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, declared on Wednesday that there will be “a pointed discussion with the U.S.” and that “Israel views with utmost severity the imposition of sanctions on citizens of Israel.”

Israel has held the West Bank of the Jordan River, which the Palestinians desire to serve as the center of their own sovereign state, since the Middle East War in 1967. There, it constructed Jewish settlements that are illegal in the majority of nations. Israel contests this, pointing to biblical and historical links to the territory.

Declaring in February that settlements violated international law, the Biden administration represented a reversal of long-standing U.S. policy on the matter from the Trump administration.

Former sanctions against settlements were criticized by Netanyahu’s ultra-nationalist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.