Biden imposes sanctions on violent West Bank settlers in reprimand to Israel

President Joe Biden issued an executive order Thursday that aims to punish Israeli settlers who have been attacking Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

As part of the roll-out, the Biden administration announced it is imposing sanctions on four individuals who have engaged in such violence, which has killed or displaced many Palestinians from their lands, two senior administration officials told reporters.

“One individual initiated and led a riot which involved setting vehicles and buildings on fire, assaulting civilians, causing damage to property, which resulted, actually, in that incident and the death of a Palestinian civilian,” said one of the senior officials. Other people assaulted farmers and Israeli activists with stones and clubs that led to injuries. Some of the individuals have been prosecuted in the Israeli system, the official added.

The designated individuals’ property held in American financial institutions will be frozen and blocked, the officials stated, while foreign nationals will be prohibited from making payments or providing services to the designated individuals. The officials briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity to preview the order — which POLITICO first reported earlier Thursday.

The office of the Israeli prime minister blasted the move in a statement. "The absolute majority of the settlers in Judea and Samaria are law-abiding citizens, many of whom are currently fighting regularly and in the reserves for the defense of Israel.Israel acts against all lawbreakers everywhere," it reads. "There is no room for exceptional measures in this regard."

The order comes as Biden is under growing pressure, including from Democrats, to be tougher on Israel as critics say its military campaign against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is a disproportionate reaction to the Hamas attack of Oct. 7.

It also drops as Biden is due Thursday to visit Michigan, a battleground state this election year that is home to many Arab-Americans furious with his approach to the Israel-Hamas war.

Senior White House officials on Wednesday briefed Ron Dermer, a close confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on the move during his visit to Washington, a congressional staffer said. The staffer was granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak to the press.

Far-right Israeli settlers in the West Bank have for years staged attacks on many of the roughly 3 million Palestinians in the territory, often aimed at seizing land that the Palestinians claim for a future state. Such attacks spiked after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, leading to the emptying of entire Palestinian villages.

At the same time, Biden has faced intense pressure to appear more even-handed in the conflict as Hamas-controlled agencies have reported more than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military campaign against the militant group.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Ben Cardin (D-Md.), a staunch Israel supporter, said he had urged the administration to take such an approach and said he was happy it is following through.

"There has to be a clear message from the United States in regards to settler violence, but more importantly Israel," Cardin said in an interview. "People's lives are being lost so action needs to be taken."

"I want Israelis and Palestinians living together in peace," he added. "In the West Bank, we have certain responsibilities about the settlers that are there. There have to be boundaries."

While the executive order is significant, it is not necessarily the furthest an American president has gone to reprimand Israeli behavior.

The Clinton administration designated two extremist Jewish groups as foreign terrorist organizations — and they remained on the list until Biden removed them in 2022. George H.W. Bush tied a $10 billion loan guarantee for Israel to a settlement freeze and later Barack Obama called on Netanayhu to pause all settler construction in the West Bank, a request Netanyahu defied.

The Biden administration has been laying the groundwork for the executive order for months. In November, Biden directed top U.S. officials to develop options for punishing violent Israeli settlers. The memo sent to Cabinet officials like Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen broadly defined who could be a target.

They included people or entities that “have directly or indirectly engaged in actions or policies that threaten the security or stability of the West Bank,” take “actions that intimidate civilians in the West Bank with the purpose or effect of forcing displacement actions in the West Bank,” or make moves “that constitute human rights abuses or violations and actions that significantly obstruct, disrupt or prevent efforts to achieve a two-state solution.”

In December, Blinken announced U.S. visa restrictions on a number of extremist Israeli settlers.

Hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, and their presence comes with a large amount of Israeli security, which means even less space for Palestinians to live. Many Israeli settlers do not believe in permitting a Palestinian state to exist. Such sentiments are more widespread among Israelis since the Hamas attack on their country, which killed 1,200 people.

But other than rhetorical pleas, top officials in the Biden administration had resisted pressuring Israel to rein in the settlers before the Oct. 7 attack. Such inaction was in line with Biden’s preference of trying to persuade Israeli leaders through carrots instead of sticks, as well as worries about seeming to interfere with internal Israeli politics.

If past patterns hold, the new sanctions are likely to be more punishing in that they will likely include freezes on financial assets the settlers may hold in the United States, among other penalties.

The State and Treasury Departments are expected to issue details Thursday on the sanctions and how financial institutions should approach the issue, according to the documents.

The Biden administration has stepped up support for Palestinians after staunchly backing Israel’s retaliation against Hamas in Gaza, most notably by pushing for more humanitarian aid to enter the enclave.

In recent weeks, as Netanyahu’s government has stiff-armed American attempts to wind down the war and the U.S. develops “day after” scenarios, Washington has shifted its approach to weigh Palestinian concerns more.

Joe Gould contributed to this report.