The United States has announced another round of sanctions targeting extremist settler violence in the West Bank amid increasing attacks in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The sanctions announced Wednesday target Hashomer Yosh, an Israeli nongovernment organization that was founded in 2013 with the objective to assist Israelis in the West Bank who “bravely protect our lands and stand strong in the face of economic difficulties and frequent agricultural crime,” according to its website.
However, the U.S. State Department accuses its volunteers of fencing off Khirbet Zanuta to prevent Palestinians forcibly evicted from the village from returning. Its volunteers have also been accused of providing material support to a sanctioned illegal outpost and U.S. designated settlers.
The Biden administration also sanctioned Yitzhak Levi Filant, a civilian security coordinator of the Yitzhar settlement. The State Department said he has “engaged in malign activities outside the scope of his authority,” including in February when he led a group of armed settlers to set up roadblocks and conducted patrols that had the mission to attack Palestinians and expel them from their lands.
Democracy for the Arab World Now, the pro-democracy non-profit organization founded by writer Jamal Khashoggi, said days prior to the sanctioning that it had provided the State Department with a dossier containing evidence of Filant’s alleged history of violence and had called on the State Department to sanction him and other Israeli leaders of the Yitzhar settlement.
The organization said in a statement on Monday that there have been more than a dozen document incidents of Filant’s participation in violent assaults, shootings, threats, arson and property destruction targeting Palestinians between October 2019 and February. It said that in those incidents, Filant was either directly involved in the settler and military violence or directed it.
“Targeting the notorious Yitzhar security officer, Filant, is an important step in recognizing the institutional and state-backed nature of settler violence,” Mike Omer-Man, director of research for Israel-Palestine at DAWN, said in a statement.
Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory and the establishment of settlements there are widely viewed as illegal under international law, and has attracted the repeated criticism and condemnation of the United Nations and the wider international community.
Greater attention has been placed on the West Bank amid Israeli’s nearly 11-month-old war against Hamas in Gaza as it has become a growing flashpoint of violence between Israelis and Palestinians while also seemingly being an Israeli policy open to ally criticism.
Since Feb. 1, the Biden administration has unleashed several batches of punitive measures targeting the increasing settler violence, which it views as an obstacle to lasting peace in the region.
At least nine people, 11 entities and two outposts have been hit with the U.S. punitive measures, while other governments, including Canada and the European Union have followed with sanctions of their own.
The Office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told UPI in an emailed statement Wednesday evening that the issue of sanctions is under “pointed” discussions with the United states.
“Israel views with utmost severity the imposition of sanctions on citizens of Israel,” it said.
The sanctions also come about two weeks after Israeli settlers attacked an occupied West Bank village, killing at least one Palestinian.
A Wednesday update from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs states that between Oct. 7 and Monday, 622 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank, 602 by Israeli forces, 11 by Israeli settlers and seven whose perpetrator remains unknown.
“Extremist settler violence in the West Bank causes intense human suffering, harms Israel’s security and undermines the prospect for peace and stability in the region,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement, while criticizing Israel for not doing more to deter the illegal activity.
“It is critical that the government of Israel hold accountable any individuals and entities responsible for violence against civilians in the West Bank.”
DAWN said while the sanctions are an important step, the United States should now turn to those of the Israeli government who are involved.
“The sanctions will never put an end to settler violence unless they start targeting the state institutions and politicians who treat settlers as a tool of their expansionist policies,” Omer-Man said.
