US Sanctions Israeli NGO and Individuals Over West Bank Settler Violence
On Wednesday, the United States imposed new sanctions on an Israeli NGO and people owing to a rising tendency of Jewish settler violence in the occupied West Bank against Palestinians.
The U.S. declares Meitarim Farm, an organization that supports extremism. However, the U.S. State Department sanctions an Israeli NGO, Hashomer Yosh, for providing material support to it. Furthermore, the sanctions concern Yinon Levi, Neriya Ben Pazi, and Zvi Bar Yosef, who are recognized as US-designated individuals involved in the given activities.
Also, Yitzhak Levi Filant, a civilian security coordinator for Yitzhar, a settlement in the West Bank, has been blacklisted. According to Filant, he led armed setters in the process of organizing roadblocks and patrolling the area to search for and attack Palestinians, with the aim of eviction from their lands.
In addition, ‘‘West Bank settlers’ acts of extreme violence generate severe human suffering in the territories, is detrimental to Israeli security, and poses a detriment to the potential for stability in the Middle East’, said State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. He stressed that more steps would be taken so that the culprits that perpetrate or sponsor terrorism in the West Bank would be made to answer for their actions.
This announcement came after significant ground and air operations in the North of the West Bank, which Israel occupies. The latest report from the Palestinian Health Ministry is that at least nine Palestinians have been killed in the said operation.
In a related context, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday urged the northern West Bank to employ military procedures similar to Gaza, such as resettling the residents.
Situations are tense in the West Bank, which is occupied by Israel, where operation is still going on in Gaza. After October 7, 2023, over 40,500 people, many of them women and children, are reported to have been killed through Israeli air and ground attacks in Gaza. In the West Bank, 660 Palestinians have been reported killed, while almost 5400 others were injured by sources from Palestine.
It has attracted international outrage, especially after the ICJ issued an opinion on July 19. The ICJ argued that Israel’s blockade of the Palestinian people has been unlawful for decades and urged to remove all the settlements in the Palestinian territories, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
It is for a similar reason that the new US sanctions represent a new trend in the international response to growing violence and calls for justice in the occupied territories. Such stakings highlight the need to resolve conflict and preserve all civil liberties.
