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US Sanctions More Hardline Israeli Settlers Before Trump’s Term

Iain Marlow

18 November 2024 at 12:36 pm·2-min read

(Bloomberg) -- The outgoing Biden-Harris administration has levied more sanctions against extremist Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, actions that could be undone by President-elect Donald Trump and his nominees.

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The State Department announced new sanctions Monday against three Israeli entities and three individuals for dispossessing Palestinians of land or threatening or engaging in violence against Palestinians.

“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 spokesman 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.”

The moves follow sanctions levied against Israeli activists in the West Bank in October.

Trump has spoken to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu several times in recent weeks, and has told the Israeli leader to “do what you have to do” in the ongoing conflicts in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon — a departure from President Joe Biden’s approach combining general support with calls for cease-fires to to protect civilians and support for an eventual Palestinian homeland.

Trump already has named a number of nominees to prominent national security roles who support Israeli settler activity in the West Bank, where the settlements are considered illegal under international law.

Trump’s pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, appeared to support extending formal Israeli sovereignty to West Bank settlements in a video of a speech he made in Jerusalem in 2018.

That same year Mike Huckabee, Trump’s nominee to be the US ambassador to Israel, told a crowd that he’d like to own a holiday home in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, according to the Hill newspaper.

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