According to the website of the U.S. Department of State, on February 1, local time, U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order imposing financial and visa sanctions on four Israeli men accused of participating in "settler violence" activities in the West Bank. According to Reuters and Al Jazeera, this shows that the Biden administration is increasingly dissatisfied with the Netanyahu government as the 2024 US election approaches.
At the same time, the United States is still making amends for Israel, saying that the Israeli government has taken action against such violence, but it was immediately "slapped in the face" by Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's vast majority of settlers are "law-abiding citizens", and the above-mentioned measures by the United States are "completely unnecessary".
The U.S. State Department issued Biden's latest executive order: sanctions against four Israelis
According to a statement from the U.S. State Department, the four Israeli men sanctioned — David Chai Chasdai, Einan Tanjil, Shalom Zicherman and Yinon Levi — are accused of participating in riots in the West Bank that attacked Palestinians and destroyed Palestinian civilian property. The United States froze the property of four people in the United States, prohibiting Americans from dealing with them.
According to Reuters, the latest sanctions against Israeli citizens show Biden's growing dissatisfaction with the behavior of the Netanyahu government and Jewish settlers. Biden and other senior officials have repeatedly warned that Israel must act to stop settler violence in the West Bank.
A senior U.S. official revealed that Biden had raised the issue directly with Netanyahu. The Biden administration has sought a "two-state solution" for Israel and Palestine after the end of the conflict in Gaza, but has been repeatedly rejected by the Netanyahu government.
As early as last November, Biden instructed senior U.S. officials to develop a plan to punish violent Jewish settlers, according to the American political news network "Politico". In December, Blinken announced that the United States would impose visa restrictions on some Israeli extremist settlers.
U.S. media Axios quoted sources as saying that in recent weeks, the White House, the State Department and the Treasury Department have been quietly formulating relevant executive orders.
Two U.S. officials revealed that the White House had considered adding two of Israel's ultranationalist ministers, National Security Secretary Itamar Ben Gvir and Treasury Secretary Bezalel Smotrich, to the sanctions list, but ultimately decided to exclude them for the time being, focusing on those who directly carried out the attacks. Gvir and Smotridge have long encouraged Jewish settler behavior, declaring that they want to "exterminate" a Palestinian town in the West Bank, and even encouraging Jews to move to Gaza.
Later on the 1st, Biden issued a statement on Twitter, saying that the sanctions executive order is aimed at punishing Israeli settlers for misbehavior in the West Bank, and is intended to "promote the common security of Israelis and Palestinians."
Screenshot of Biden's tweet
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement that the executive order establishes a system of financial sanctions and visa restrictions on individuals who attack or intimidate Palestinians or seize their property. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said "Israel must do more" to end violence against civilians in the West Bank and hold perpetrators accountable.
U.S. State Department spokesman Miller said at a press conference on the same day that the U.S. side had submitted documents to Israeli officials about the "settler violence" incident, and said that in some cases, "Israel has already taken action." Miller also said violence in the West Bank has declined over the past two months, while three of the four people sanctioned by the United States have been prosecuted by Israel.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department stated that the video was screenshotted
Although US officials are trying their best to "make amends" for Israel, Al Jazeera reporters pointed out that the Israeli government will not hold the Jewish settlers accountable, and "in many incidents, we have seen that the settlers' actions are either tacitly supported by the Israeli army or actually supported by the Israeli military."
Israel is also "not buying" the Biden administration's above-mentioned measures. Netanyahu's office issued a statement insisting that the vast majority of settlers are "law-abiding citizens" and that "Israel is taking action against all Israelis around the world who break the law;
Israel's far-right finance minister, Smotrich, has expressed contempt for Biden's executive order. "The so-called 'settler violence' campaign is an anti-Semitic lie spread by Israel's enemies to discredit pioneer settlers and settlement businesses, harm them, and thus discredit the entire State of Israel," he claimed. ”
According to reports, hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers currently live in the West Bank, greatly reducing the living space of Palestinians in the area. Since the outbreak of the current round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the violence of Israeli settlers in the West Bank has intensified, causing widespread concern in the international community.
"The Israeli settlers threatened us, attacked us and told us that if we didn't leave, we would be killed. The Wall Street Journal reported in December last year that Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have almost doubled since the outbreak of the current round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and some settlers have even threatened to kill Palestinians who are unwilling to leave.
According to the latest data from the Palestinian health sector, Israeli army operations have killed more than 380 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7 last year, most of them in confrontations with Israeli forces during arrest attacks or violent protests.
Shortly before the Biden administration issued its latest executive order, in the early morning of January 30 local time, more than a dozen Israeli commandos infiltrated a hospital in the West Bank and killed three Palestinians. Surveillance video from the hospital showed most of the Israeli soldiers dressed in disguise, many of them disguised as Muslim women wearing headscarves, and others wearing white doctor's coats.
Al Jazeera reporters said Israeli soldiers dressed as doctors, nurses and even civilians infiltrated the hospital and killed three people who were sleeping, "this is the first time they have entered a civilian medical facility, and it appears to be a well-planned and targeted assassination operation" that "one can imagine the fear of the medical staff and patients at this hospital".
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