President Joe Biden has instructed high ranking officials to ready visa bans and sanctions targeting extremist Israeli settlers involved in attacks and displacements of Palestinians in the West Bank, as revealed in an internal document disclosed to POLITICO. The Cabinet memo, distributed to key aides including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday, mandates their respective agencies to “formulate policy alternatives for prompt measures against individuals accountable for engaging in violent activities in the West Bank.”
A senior U.S. official read sections of the memo to POLITICO on Saturday evening shortly after Biden published an op-ed in The Washington Post revealing his intentions for such a move. “The United States is prepared to take our own steps, including issuing visa bans against extremists attacking civilians in the West Bank,” he wrote in the op-ed.
This directive reflects the Biden administration’s effort to demonstrate support for Palestinian civilians in need while maintaining its backing of Israel’s response to Hamas. Simultaneously, some members of the president’s party are advocating for conditions on military aid to Israel.
The memo broadly defines the targets for reprimands, encompassing individuals or entities engaging in actions or policies threatening the West Bank’s security, intimidating civilians to force displacement, or committing human rights abuses that impede a two-state solution. instructed high ranking officials
President Biden views settler violence as a “serious threat” to peace in the region and the broader Middle East. The decision to issue the directive followed intensive debates, with national security adviser Jake Sullivan and deputy Jon Finer providing direct input during an internal process.
It’s important to note that POLITICO has not seen the memo, and the official providing this information remains anonymous due to the sensitivity of the internal document. The White House has declined to comment.
Israeli settlers have been moving into the West Bank for years, and incidents of violence were already growing after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power nearly a year ago. But the intensity of the long-running issue has grown since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people.
According to Yesh Din, an Israeli rights group, 197 Palestinians in the West Bank have lost their lives at the hands of either settlers or Israeli forces since October 7. Concurrently, the United Nations reveals that, within the same timeframe, at least 121 Palestinian households, comprising approximately 1,150 individuals, including 452 children, have been forcibly displaced due to settler violence and access restrictions.