WASHINGTON – On Thursday, US President Joe
Biden issued an Executive Order imposing sanctions on violent West Bank Jewish
settlers, citing high levels of extremist settler violence, forced
displacement, and property destruction against Palestinians.
اضافة اعلان
Biden’s order highlights the intolerable
levels of violence and instability, emphasizing the threat posed to peace,
security, and stability in the region. The actions, according to Biden,
undermine the foreign policy objectives of the US, including the viability of a
two-state solution and equal measures of security, prosperity, and freedom.
The order underscores the seriousness of the
situation, pointing out the potential for broader regional destabilization
across the Middle East and the threat to US personnel and interests.
As part of the measures, Biden has ordered the
blocking of all property and interests in property of foreign persons involved
in threatening actions in the West Bank. These actions include violence
targeting civilians, efforts to instill fear among civilians, property
destruction, and seizure or dispossession of property by private actors.
Biden has authorized the Secretary of the
Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to take the necessary
actions to implement the order effectively. Recurring and final reports on the
Executive Order will be submitted to Congress to ensure transparency and
oversight.
Four Israeli settlers will be targeted in the
first round of sanctions, in which their assets in the US will be frozen.
Biden's order will further allow the US to impose sanctions on additional
individuals targeting Palestinian civilians, whether through violence,
intimidation, property damages, or terror.
Israeli Finance Smotrich reaction
After the White House published the order,
Bezalel Smotrich, the Finance Minister of Israel, criticized the Biden
administration, stating, “The campaign against settlers is an anti-Semitic lie
spread by Israel’s enemies to defame the pioneering settlers, the settlement
project, and harm them, and to defame Israel as a whole.”
“This is an unethical campaign to boycott
Israel that becomes a victim of the attacker, and the blood of the settlers is
shed. It is shameful that the Biden administration is cooperating with this, at
a time when the settlers are paying a high price with the blood of their best
sons in the war on Gaza,” Amad Media quoted Smotrich.
“US
efforts to promote the two-state solution will only be achieved when the hopes
of the Arabs are realized—an Arab state on the ruins of the Jewish state. If
the price is imposing US sanctions on me, let it be," he added.
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