Biden administration sanctions Israeli settler group, in move that Trump could reverse

With the clock ticking before the end of Joe Biden’s presidency, his administration has imposed a new round of sanctions targeting Israeli extremists deemed responsible for violence against Palestinians and destabilizing the West Bank.

These sanctions will be short-lived if Donald Trump or his appointees decide to lift them when he returns to the White House in January. 

The Treasury and State departments on Monday announced sanctions against Amana, which it called “the largest organization involved in settlement and illegal outpost development in the West Bank.”

Also added to the sanctions list were two other entities and three Israeli individuals that the United States determined are detrimental to its efforts to protect Palestinian civilians and stabilize the West Bank.

Sanctions entail a U.S. travel ban and nearly worldwide financial restrictions.

According to the State Department, Amana has supported the Israeli settlement movement by engaging in “dispossession of private land owned by Palestinians.” Amana, which was previously sanctioned by the United Kingdom and Canada, has established dozens of settler outposts — West Bank settlements that are considered illegal under Israeli law — sometimes by deploying flocks of sheep to assert Jewish control over patches of land. Its leader, Ze’ev “Zambish” Hever, was briefly imprisoned the 1980s for his role in an extremist group.  

“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,” the State Department said in its announcement. “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 Biden administration has levied sanctions on Israeli extremists multiple times since the beginning of the year, reflecting the White House’s increasingly aggressive effort to use diplomacy to calm tensions in the West Bank. But it has so far resisted pressure to target two far-right Israeli cabinet ministers, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Last month, 88 Democratic lawmakers in Congress signed a letter urging sanctions against the two politicians.

Trump has reportedly told the Israeli prime minister to “do what you have to do” regarding Israel’s war with Hamas and Hezbollah in Gaza and Lebanon, and the two have spoken several times since Trump’s election, which could spell a shift from U.S. policy under Biden, who has supported Israel while also seeking to restrain Israel on humanitarian grounds. 

U.S. support for the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel could also be upended in light of Trump’s intention to nominate people who have spoken in favor of settlements and of annexation of the West Bank by Israel for several key roles, including Mike Huckabee, Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador, and Peter Hegseth, the proposed secretary of defense.

David Friedman, a Trump ally who was his ambassador to Israel during his first term, condemned the latest sanctions.

“The Biden Administration is imposing financial penalties on Israeli companies lawfully building homes in Judea and Samaria with the approval of the Israeli government. It is interfering in an entirely domestic Israeli zoning issue and ignoring US State Department precedent that Jews have the legal right to live in their Biblical homeland,” Friedman tweeted. “This is as ridiculous as Israel trying to prohibit an American builder from constructing homes in California. January 20 can’t come soon enough.”