Still in place for two months, the Biden administration launched “the latest in a series of punitive measures taken by the United States against the colonization enterprise” in the occupied West Bank, writes the site Times of Israel. These sanctions, announced on November 18 by the American Department of Finance, mainly target the Amana organization, a “key organization” of “extremist Israeli settlement movement” Who “funded and assisted in the creation of numerous illegal settlements and outposts.” She would also have links with individuals already sanctioned by the United States. “for perpetrating violence in the West Bank.”
In this case, the sanctions consist of a freeze of assets in the United States as well as travel bans on American soil. A subsidiary of the organization, Binyanei Bar Amana, a small construction company, Eyal Harei Yehuda, as well as three other individuals linked to these entities are also targeted.
In total, with this latest salvo, 17 individuals and 16 entities have been sanctioned in recent months by the United States. And this thanks to a decree from the outgoing American president which “allows the United States to target [les personnes et les groupes] destabilizing the West Bank” and was signed in February, “at a time of growing frustration with Israel's inability to quell settler violence,” reminds Times of Israel.
Sanctions canceled by Trump?
Since 1967, Israel and Israeli settlers have been setting up colonies in the West Bank, which they consider to be biblical Judea and Samaria. The establishment of these settlements, illegal under international law, removes the prospect of the creation of a Palestinian state on these lands.
Colonization and violence have increased significantly since the advent of Benjamin Netanyahu's government, which includes in its ranks far-right ministers like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, fervent supporters of the settler movement.
However, temper Times of Israel, “the effect of this decision was likely diluted by the election of Donald Trump […]which could well cancel these sanctions”. As a reminder, the previous Trump administration abandoned the American position that the settlements were illegal. For his next term, which will begin in January, the billionaire has appointed to his future government a large number of supporters of the colonization of the West Bank.
