Israeli officials welcome Trump’s decision to remove sanctions imposed by the Biden administration.
United States President Donald Trump has issued an executive order lifting sanctions against violent Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
Trump issued the order, among a slew of controversial moves, as he returned to the White House on Monday. The sanctions were imposed by his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, via an executive order in February.
Biden’s actions paved the way for the US Departments of State and the Treasury to sanction several far-right individuals and groups accused of perpetrating violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967 despite international law, freezing their US assets and barring US bodies and individuals from commercial relationships with them.
As much of the world’s attention has focused on the war in Gaza, growing violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank and land grabs in the occupied territory have raised concerns among some of Israel’s Western allies.
On Monday and Tuesday, settlers set vehicles and properties on fire under the protection of Israeli soldiers. At least 21 Palestinians were reported to have been injured.
Since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, at least 860 Palestinians, including 175 children, have been killed and more than 6,700 wounded in attacks by the Israeli army and settlers across the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
“Lifting sanctions on extremist settlers encourages them to commit more crimes against our people,” the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
‘US has returned to being our friend’
Israeli officials welcomed Trump’s “historic decision” to reverse the sanctions.
Yossi Dagan, head of the Northern West Bank Settlements Council, said the reversal of the “scandalous sanctions” was “a political message that the United States has returned to being our friend,” according to Israeli media.
“This is a righting of an injustice of many years, in which distorted policies were pursued by the American administration and also by local elements who confused lovers with enemies,” Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right former national security minister said on X.
His ally, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, said Trump’s stand shows his “deep connection to the Jewish people and our historic right to our land”.
“These sanctions were a serious act of blatant foreign interference in the internal affairs of the state of Israel and harmed the principles of democracy and the mutual relationship between the two friendly countries,” he said.
US sanctions on settlers landed after the Biden administration repeatedly urged the Israeli government to take action to hold settlers to account for actions that Washington believed set back hopes for a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians.
Since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, which Palestinians want as the core of an independent state. Israel has built settlements there, which are illegal under international law.
Israel disputes this and cites historical and biblical ties to the land.
