Why did US President Trump lift sanctions against Israeli settlers? | News about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Among the slew of executive orders signed by United States President Donald Trump following his inauguration on Monday were the lifting of sanctions imposed by former President Joe Biden’s administration on more than 30 Israeli settler groups and entities.

Settler violence has long been a fact of life for Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank. But attacks and theft of Palestinian land have increased since the start of Israel’s war against Gaza.

Israel’s far right celebrated Trump’s move, even though it came shortly after the new president pushed for a cease-fire in Gaza, angering the faction. So what can we learn from the lifting of sanctions and what will be Trump’s policy towards Israel and Palestine?

What sanctions were imposed on immigrants?

Under the terms of the sanctions, individuals and entities are blocked from accessing all US property, assets, as well as the US financial system.

Who were the sanctions aimed at?

Illegal Israeli settlements have been built throughout the West Bank since it was occupied by Israel in 1967. The settlements were built on seized Palestinian land and are part of an effort by the insurgent movement and the Israeli government to increase control over the West Bank. Palestinians emphasize that the settlements – in which they are not allowed to live – actually make the establishment of a Palestinian state impossible.

Numerous individuals and entities were affected by the sanctions. Among them were organizations for settlement development Amana, as well as its subsidiary Binyanei Bar Amana Ltdboth of which U.S. officials have determined are among organizations that serve as umbrella bodies for violent and extremist immigrant activity.

Individuals such as David Chai Chasdai, with convictions in Israel for violence against Palestinians dating back more than a decade, are also included, as are many settlers who US officials have determined have established illegal outposts or settlements on Palestinian land, such as Swiss Farm , founded by a settler, Zvi Bar Yosef, described by the anti-occupation researcher Dror Etkes, as responsible for “the most brutal attacks I have ever heard of in terms of attacks on settlers”.

However, despite the uncompromising rhetoric of the Biden administration, plans to sanction the ultra-Orthodox Netzah Yehuda Battalion after a series of alleged abuses, including the arbitrary killing and torture of Palestinian civilians, were postponed after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly objected.

Why did the US impose sanctions on the citizens of its allies

The sanctions came as the Biden administration faced pressure to use its power to halt Israel’s war on Gaza, including halting arms sales.

Unwilling to do so, the administration instead implemented several smaller measures to influence Israeli actions and signal its displeasure, such as sanctions on select settler groups and individuals.

In November former State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said both Biden and his secretary of state, Antony Blinken, “repeatedly emphasized with their Israeli counterparts that Israel must do more to stop the violence against civilians in the West Bank and hold those responsible to account.”

The Israeli government is dominated by far-right pro-settlement factions, including Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, who served as national security minister until last weekend, when he resigned in protest at a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

In November, Ben-Gvir responded to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Netanyahu by suggesting that Israel should annex the West Bank. Earlier that month, in anticipation of Trump’s presidency, Smotrich went further, ordering that preparations be made this year for the annexation of the occupied territory.

Did the sanctions limit the violence?

Not.

Until 2024, the period in which American sanctions were introduced, Recorded by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). the highest number of attacks in nearly two decades since OCHA began documenting such incidents, recording “approximately 4,250 Palestinians displaced, 1,760 structures destroyed and approximately 1,400 incidents involving Israeli settlers across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

Al Jazeera and human rights groups, including Amnesty International, were followed numerous incidents of settler violence against Palestinian homes during Israel’s war on Gaza and consistently found that settler attacks were either ignored or even encouraged by security forces under the command of Ben-Gvir.

What was Israel’s response to the lifting of sanctions?

Both Smotrich and Ben-Gvir celebrated Trump’s lifting of sanctions.

In a post on social media, Ben-Gvir wrote that he welcomed “the historic decision by incoming US President Donald Trump to lift the sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on settlers in Judea and Samaria,” he said, using the term for the occupied West Bank used by the Israeli government.

Finance Minister Smotrich was equally emphatic, characterizing the sanctions as “severe and blatant foreign intervention in Israel’s internal affairs.”

I sincerely thank President Donald Trump for his righteous decision to lift the sanctions imposed by the Biden administration against immigrants and activists in right-wing organizations. These sanctions were a severe and blatant foreign intervention in Israel’s internal affairs and… pic.twitter.com/Lp1I8oFixa

— בצלאל סמותריש’ (@bezalelsm) January 21, 2025

Is this a sign of what will be Trump’s policy towards Israel and Palestine?

While many in the pro-Palestinian camp give Trump credit for pushing for a cease-fire in Gaza, he was strongly pro-Israel in his first term and will likely continue to be so for the next four years.

In the past, Trump has been willing to give Israel’s right a few victories even when it went against long-term American policy. For example, he moved the US embassy to Jerusalem and recognized Israel’s illegal annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights in his first term. He also presented an initiative that would recognize Israeli sovereignty over illegal settlement blocks in the West Bank.

Members of his current circle include Mike HuckabeeTrump’s evangelical and pro-settler pick for US ambassador to Israel, as well as “megadonor” billionaire Miriam Adelson, who is reported to support Israel’s annexation of the West Bank, suggest that Israel’s ambitions for the territory may be coming closer, said HA Hellyer, senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.

The Trump administration also nominated Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik to be the US ambassador to the United Nations. Stefanik spoke about Israel’s “biblical right” to the West Bank and characterized the number of times the UN votes against Israel as proof of the organization’s “anti-Semitic rot.”

“Many of Trump’s appointees, like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth or his new national security adviser, Mike Waltz, would suggest that we see the very limited and limited restraint on Israel’s behavior that has existed be completely abandoned,” Hellyer said.