US to Impose Visa Bans Soon on Israeli Extremist Settlers

FILE PHOTO: A man stands near damaged objects after an Israeli settlers' attack near Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank October 6, 2023. REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A man stands near damaged objects after an Israeli settlers' attack near Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank October 6, 2023. REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta/File Photo
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US to Impose Visa Bans Soon on Israeli Extremist Settlers

FILE PHOTO: A man stands near damaged objects after an Israeli settlers' attack near Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank October 6, 2023. REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A man stands near damaged objects after an Israeli settlers' attack near Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank October 6, 2023. REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta/File Photo

The Biden administration has informed Israel that Washington will impose visa bans in the next few weeks on Israeli extremist settlers engaged in violence against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, a senior State Department official said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet have let them know that the United States will take its own action against an undisclosed number of individuals.
The West Bank, among the territories where Palestinians seek statehood, has experienced a surge of violence in recent months amid expanding Jewish settlements and a nearly decade-old impasse in US-sponsored peacemaking.
The violence, at a more-than-15-year high this year, surged further after Israel hurtled into a new war in the separate enclave of Gaza in response to Palestinian militant group Hamas unleashing the deadliest day in Israel's history on Oct. 7.
The United States has repeatedly expressed its concern over the rising violence in the West Bank, saying it must stop. US President Joe Biden, in a Nov. 18 Washington Post opinion piece threatened to take action against the perpetrators.
"I have been emphatic with Israel’s leaders that extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must stop and that those committing the violence must be held accountable. The United States is prepared to take our own steps, including issuing visa bans against extremists attacking civilians in the West Bank," Biden wrote.
The State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said Washington wants Israel to prosecute the perpetrators but has yet to see such a step.
The visa bans could come in the next few weeks, Reuters quoted the official as saying.
Daily settler attacks have more than doubled, UN figures show, since Hamas, which controls the coastal enclave of Gaza to Israel's southwest, killed 1,200 Israelis and took about 240 hostage. Israel has since bombed and invaded Gaza, killing more than 15,000 people.



US Congress Certifies Trump Election Victory for Jan. 20 Inauguration

US Vice President Kamala Harris attends a joint session of Congress to certify Donald Trump's election, at the US Capitol in Washington, US, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)
US Vice President Kamala Harris attends a joint session of Congress to certify Donald Trump's election, at the US Capitol in Washington, US, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)
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US Congress Certifies Trump Election Victory for Jan. 20 Inauguration

US Vice President Kamala Harris attends a joint session of Congress to certify Donald Trump's election, at the US Capitol in Washington, US, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)
US Vice President Kamala Harris attends a joint session of Congress to certify Donald Trump's election, at the US Capitol in Washington, US, January 6, 2025. (Reuters)

The US Congress formally certified Republican President-elect Donald Trump's November election victory over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, clearing the way for him to be sworn in on Jan. 20.

The certification of the election results on Monday in the 50 states and the District of Columbia was accomplished in a brief, formal ceremony during a joint session of the House of Representatives and Senate. It was presided over by Harris, acting in her vice-presidential role as president of the Senate.

The quadrennial ritual stood in sharp contrast to four years ago when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a failed bid to block the certification of then-President Trump's 2020 loss to Democratic President Joe Biden.

Trump continues to falsely claim that his 2020 defeat was the result of widespread fraud, and had warned throughout his 2024 campaign that he harbored similar concerns until his Nov. 5 defeat of Harris.

"Congress certifies our great election victory today - a big moment in history. MAGA!" Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Monday.

The joint session of Congress proceeded even as a winter storm hovered over the nation's capital, dropping about 6 inches (15 cm) of snow and snarling travel.

The final certification backed up preliminary findings that Trump won 312 Electoral College votes to Harris's 226.

REPUBLICANS CONTROL WHITE HOUSE, CONGRESS

Republicans also captured a majority in the US Senate and held a narrow edge in the House in November's election, which will give Trump the party support he needs to implement his planned agenda of tax cuts and a crackdown on immigrants living in the country illegally.

Democrats did not try to block certification of Trump's victory on Monday.

"We must renew our commitment to safeguarding American democracy," No. 2 House Democrat Katherine Clark said in a statement earlier in the day. "As elected leaders, our loyalty must be to the Constitution, first and always. We are here to honor the will of the people and the rule of law."

Security inside and outside the Capitol was heightened in preparation for the certification and was expected to remain in place through Trump's swearing-in.

The Capitol grounds were ringed by metal fences hundreds of yards from the US Capitol, and accessible only via checkpoints guarded by uniformed police officers.

Convoys of black police vehicles were on hand, led by a 10-wheel Baltimore police mobile command center. New York Police Department reinforcements were also patrolling the area.

Inside, extra teams of uniformed US Capitol Police officers were checking IDs at entrance sites including doors and underground tunnels leading to the House and Senate chambers.

Trump has said he plans to pardon some of the more than 1,500 people charged with taking part in the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, when a mob fought with police, smashing its way in through windows and doors and chanting, "Hang Mike Pence," referring to Trump's then-vice president, in a failed bid to stop Congress from certifying Biden's victory.

In the 2021 melee at the Capitol, rioters surged past police barricades, assaulting about 140 officers and causing more than $2.8 million in damage. Multiple police officers who battled protesters died in the weeks that followed, some by suicide.

As a result of that day's violence, Congress passed legislation late in 2022 bolstering guardrails to ensure that the certification process is administered in a legal manner.

Many of these changes were directly in response to Trump's actions leading up to and including Jan. 6, 2021. For example, the new law asserts that the vice president's role is largely ceremonial.