Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has vowed to advocate for settlement activities in the West Bank in response to US President Joe Biden's decision to penalize settlers involved in attacks against Palestinians there.
Following approximately seven months of halted construction, West Bank settlement officials are pushing for a meeting of the Civil Administration's Supreme Planning Council of the Israeli army. The objective is to expedite the approval process for thousands of settlement units across the West Bank.
At the helm of the Israeli Civil Administration, Smotrich, known for his extremist views, serves as the second minister in the Ministry of Defense.
Smotrich affirmed his commitment to advancing Jewish settlement efforts throughout Israel, even if it entails facing US sanctions.
Yedioth Ahronoth Israeli newspaper reported that around 7,000 housing units are currently in progress at various stages, with over 2,000 of them moving towards the final stage of obtaining building permits. These numbers are not yet finalized as the process is still underway.
"Our silence thus far is due to the understanding that the State of Israel is in a highly complex period, with strategic relations with the United States being managed in accordance with the needs of the war, Shlomo Ne'eman, head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, said. "While we remain determined and patient, we sense that a breaking point is approaching."
President Biden issued an executive order on Thursday that aims to punish ill-behaved Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
The Biden administration also imposed sanctions on four Israeli men it accused of being involved in settler violence in the West Bank, and they are David Chai Chasdai, Einan Tanjil, Shalom Zicherman, and Yinon Levi.
The action is the furthest that any administration has taken to address the phenomenon, which has persisted despite repeated US warnings for Israel to address it, including after a series of first-of-their-kind visa restrictions were announced in December. The announcement also comes amid growing heat Biden has been feeling from progressive Democrats over his continued support for Israel in the war against Hamas and his opposition to a permanent ceasefire.
“The situation in the West Bank — in particular high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction — has reached intolerable levels and constitutes a serious threat to the peace, security, and stability,” Biden said in the order.
Reacting to the move, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that “the vast majority of residents of Judea and Samaria are law-abiding citizens, many of whom are fighting right now in active and reserve duty to protect Israel.”
Israeli Finance Minister was defiant in a statement on the Biden order, saying: “The 'settler violence' campaign is an antisemitic lie that enemies of Israel disseminate with the goal of smearing the pioneering settlers and settlement enterprise, and to harm them and thus smear the entire State of Israel.”
“This is an immoral BDS campaign that turns victims into attackers and sanctions the spilling of settler blood. It’s too bad the Biden administration is cooperating with these actions,” he added.
The US has warned repeatedly that Israel must act to stop violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank. There has been reporting on rising settler violence in recent months following Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement Thursday issued in tandem with the notification of the measure that Biden sent to Congress: “This E.O. will allow the United States to issue financial sanctions against those directing or participating in certain actions, including acts or threats of violence against civilians, intimidating civilians to cause them to leave their homes, destroying or seizing property, or engaging in terrorist activity in the West Bank.”
The sanctions will block designated individuals from access to the US financial system, blocking them from any property in the US and freezing any property they might already own. The sanctions will also include a ban on entry to the US.
