On his first day in office, President Donald Trump rescinded sanctions imposed by the former Biden administration against individuals committing violence against civilians in the West Bank, which were used to target Israeli settler groups.
The White House website said Trump on Jan. 20 rescinded Executive Order 14115, issued on Feb. 1, 2024, which authorized the imposition of certain sanctions “on Persons Undermining the Peace, Security, and Stability in the West Bank.”
President Joe Biden, in the closing days of his administration, had extended by one year his order declaring a state of emergency in the West Bank and authorizing the imposition of sanctions on persons in the region responsible for violence against civilians.
The Biden administration had sanctioned 17 individuals and 16 groups in eight separate batches over the past years. They included Israelis that the State Department said were involved in violent attacks on Palestinians and the dispossession of Palestinian land.
They escalated to include close associates of outgoing National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
The last batch of sanctions targeted the settler movement’s Amana development arm. That movement’s leaders were invited to Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. Yisrael Gantz, the head of the Yesha Council, the umbrella body of settler mayors, was in the audience at the Capital One Arena. Gantz said in October he expected Trump to lift the sanctions if he won the U.S. election.
Trump’s action takes place as violence continues to plague the area, part of which the Palestinian Authority administers and sees as a future independent Palestinian state but which Jewish residents want Israel to annex.
Trump has angered some on the Israeli right as he is seen as having pressured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a cease-fire and hostage exchange agreement that they view as bad for Israeli security. Around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel are to be released in exchange for at least 33 Hamas-held hostages in the first phase of an evolving deal.
But meanwhile, he is compensating with gestures like this toward the settler movement—the most militant force on Israel’s right.
Netanyahu has said Trump and incoming National Security Adviser Mike Waltz have assured him that the United States will back Israel’s return to war if Hamas breaks with any terms of the temporary cease-fire agreement.
Treasury Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who lives on the West Bank and is one of the settler movement’s political leaders, thanked Trump on the X social media platform “for his just decision to lift the sanctions of the Biden administration against settlers and activists in right-wing organizations.”
He called the Biden administration’s sanctions “a severe and blatant foreign intervention in Israeli’s internal affairs.”
“Mr. President, your unwavering and uncompromising support for the State of Israel is a testament to your deep connection to the Jewish people and our historical right to our land,” Smotrich said.
“The State of Israel looks forward to continued fruitful cooperation to further enhance our national security, expand settlement across all parts of our homeland, and strengthen Israel’s standing in the world.”
The fighting has led to at least 11 deaths.
Israel announced on Tuesday that the Israel Defense Force (IDF) was beginning its own counterterrorism operation in Jenin. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation was aimed at “eradicating terrorism” and would be “extensive and significant.”
The Palestinian Authority’s health ministry said six people had been killed and at least 35 injured during the operation’s first two hours.
The IDF regards the West Bank as one of the fronts in Israel’s seven-front war. They seek to stop Iran from smuggling weapons to Hamas and PIJ for use on the West Bank or in Israel proper.
The area, set aside for an Arab state by the United Nations in 1947 as Britain prepared to leave, was occupied by Jordan in 1948 and then by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967. Many Israelis refer to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria.
Jewish residents have been accused of recent violence against Palestinian residents. For their part, they say they have been the targets of similar, often unreported violence by Palestinians, and have no choice but to take matters into their own hands.
There were accusations of overnight violence by Israelis on Jan. 21. The IDF said an initial investigation into an attack on two Palestinian villages found that dozens of assailants were involved and that IDF troops also came under attack.
“Dozens of Israeli civilians, some of them masked, arrived at night (to the) al-Funduq area ... set fire to property and caused damage,” the IDF said. “Upon receiving the reports, IDF and Israel police forces were dispatched to the scene. The civilians hurled rocks and attacked the security forces.”
The villages, Jinsafut and Al-Funduq, are located in Samaria about 50 kilometers north of Jerusalem, west of the city of Nablus.
That riot was eventually stopped by the IDF. An IDF investigation found that its first responders did not act decisively enough to stop the violence, although a second wave did and bravely took risks to do so.
Israeli leaders condemned that attack. Shin Bet director Ronen Bar labeled such incidents as “Jewish terror.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Those who fight terrorism are the IDF and the security forces, and no one else.”
Smotrich distanced himself from that incident while maintaining, in a social media post, “the rioters tonight in Jit have nothing to do with the settlements and the settlers.
“They are criminals who should be dealt with by the enforcement authorities with the full severity of the law.”
Even hard-line settler leaders questioned the violence.
Beni Katzover helped found the now-banned Gush Emunim movement in 1974, was one of the leaders of the first Jewish settlement in Samaria, Elon Moreh, in 1973, and is sometimes called the godfather of Jewish settlement in the West Bank. He was president of the settlers’ Samaria Regional Council from 1980 to 1993.
“It’s more harmful to the Jewish settlement project than any deterrence it might make against the Arabs doing whatever they’re doing.”
Meanwhile, he said, the Palestinians reap the propaganda value of worldwide headlines about it.
