US imposes sanctions on extremist Israeli settlers in West Bank

The US has announced new sanctions against extremist settlers in the West Bank who are funded by the Israeli government, as Washington steps up its attempt to rein in worsening settler violence.

The new measures drew a sharp response from the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, whose office said it viewed them “with utmost severity” and that the issue was under “pointed discussion” with Washington.

The sanctions target one organisation and one individual with long involvement in the intimidation of Palestinians with the aim of seizing their land. The US Treasury has made them “specially designated nationals”, which means their assets are blocked and US citizens and companies are prohibited from dealing with them.

The targeted group was Hashomer Yosh, which provides security for illegal settler outposts, including some which have already been sanctioned by the US. The group has been particularly active in the south Hebron hills, at the southern end of the West Bank, which has been a focus of Israeli settler violence against local Bedouin inhabitants.

“After all 250 Palestinian residents of Khirbet Zanuta [a village at the centre of the struggle for land] were forced to leave in late January, Hashomer Yosh volunteers fenced off the village to prevent the residents from returning,” the US state department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, said in a statement.

Hashomer Yosh is officially a non-government organisation, but it has been funded and supported in recent years by Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightwing coalition.

The targeted individual in Wednesday’s sanctions was Yitzhak Levi Filant, the security coordinator at Yitzhar settlement, just south of Nablus. He, like other settler security coordinators, draws a salary directly from the Israeli defence ministry.

“Although Filant’s role is akin to a security or law enforcement officer, he has engaged in malign activities outside the scope of his authority,” Miller said.

“In February 2024, he led a group of armed settlers to set up roadblocks and conduct patrols to pursue and attack Palestinians in their lands and forcefully expel them from their lands.”

Netanyahu’s office issued a terse and critical response on Wednesday night, saying: “Israel views with utmost severity the imposition of sanctions on citizens of Israel. The issue is in a pointed discussion with the US.”

The sanctions will make it hard for the Israeli government to continue to pay Filant or fund Hashomer Yosh without violating US sanctions, and will cut off direct funding from rightwing supporters in the US.

The new sanctions reflect mounting frustration in the Biden administration about the Netanyahu government’s failure to contain settler violence, and the frustration is not confined to Washington.

In a letter published last week, the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, Ronen Bar, wrote to Netanyahu and some of his ministers to warn them that violence by settlers’ “hilltop youth”, unrestrained by the state, constituted terrorism, and represented a severe national security threat because it was likely to drive a cycle of violence.

The US measures were announced a few hours after the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out raids against Palestinian militants in the West Bank, where Bar argued one of the drivers of Palestinian radicalisation was the surge in settler violence since the start of the Gaza war in October last year.

The choice of targets brings US punitive measures a significant step closer to the members of the coalition closest to the extremist settlers: the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich.

“The United States will continue to take action to promote accountability for those who commit and support extremist violence affecting the West Bank,” the state department statement said.