Why did US President Trump lift the sanctions against Israel? | Israel-Palestine conflict news

Among the executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump after his inauguration on Monday was the lifting of sanctions imposed by former President Joe Biden’s administration against more than 30 Israeli settlement groups and institutions.

Settler violence has long been a fact of life for Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank. But attacks and Theft of Palestinian lands It has escalated since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Trump’s move was celebrated by Israel’s far-right, though it came just after the new president pushed for a ceasefire 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 the settlers?

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

Who did the sanctions target?

Since its occupation by Israel in 1967, illegal Israeli settlements have been built in the West Bank. The settlements are being built on occupied Palestinian land and are part of the settlement movement and the Israeli government’s efforts to increase control over the West Bank. Palestinians stress that the settlements, which they are not allowed to live in, make the creation of a Palestinian state virtually impossible.

A number of individuals and legal entities have been subject to sanctions. Among them was the settlement improvement organization Amana as well as its subsidiary Binyanei Bar Amana LtdBoth have been identified by US officials as being among the organizations that serve as umbrella bodies for violent and extremist settlement activities.

Included are individuals such as David Chai Chasdai, who has been convicted of violence against Palestinians in Israel for more than a decade, as well as many immigrants identified by US officials as establishing illegal outposts or settlements on Palestinian land. Swiss Farm, founded by immigrant Zvi Bar Yosef, described by an anti-occupation researcher Dror Etkes, being responsible for “the most brutal attacks I have ever heard of in terms of settler attacks”.

However, despite the administration’s intransigent rhetoric, the Biden administration plans to sanction the ultra-Orthodox. Netzah Yehuda Battalion A number of abuses, including the arbitrary killing and torture of Palestinian civilians, were halted after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly protested.

Why did the US impose sanctions against the citizens of its ally?

The sanctions come as the Biden administration faces pressure to use its powers to end Israel’s war on Gaza, including arms sales.

Unwilling to do so, the administration has taken a number of small measures to influence Israel’s actions and voice its displeasure, such as sanctions against select settlement groups and individuals.

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

The Israeli government is dominated by far-right pro-settlement groups, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, who was the Minister of National Security until the end of last week, resigned in protest of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

In November, Ben-Gvir proposed that Israel annex the West Bank in response to the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu. At the beginning of the same month On the eve of Trump’s presidency, Smotrich went further and ordered preparations for the annexation of the occupied territories this year.

Have sanctions curbed violence?

no.

Until 2024, that is, the period when US sanctions are applied The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) noted The attacks, the highest in nearly two decades since OCHA began documenting such incidents, noted that “about 4,250 Palestinians displaced 1,760 destroyed structures and about 1,400 incidents involving Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”

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

How did Israel react to the lifting of sanctions?

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

Ben-Gvir wrote on social media that he welcomed “the historic decision of the new President of the United States, Donald Trump, to lift the sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on the settlers of Judea and Samaria.” Used by the Israeli government.

Finance Minister Smotrich, equally bluntly, characterized the sanctions as “serious and blatant foreign interference in Israel’s internal affairs.”

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

— Bezalel Smotrich (@bezalelsm) January 21, 2025

Is this a sign of Trump’s policy on Israel and Palestine?

While many in the pro-Palestinian camp credit Trump for pushing for a cease-fire in Gaza, he was pro-Israel in the first place and will likely remain so for the next four years.

Trump has been willing to hand Israel’s right a few victories in the past, even as he opposes long-term U.S. policy. For example, he moved the US embassy to Jerusalem and recognized Israel’s illegal annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights during his first term as president. He also introduced an initiative that would recognize Israeli sovereignty over illegal settlement blocs in the West Bank.

Members of his current circle include Mike HuckabeeTrump’s selection of an evangelical and pro-settlement candidate like Miriam Adelson, the US ambassador to Israel and billionaire “mega-donor” who reportedly supports Israel’s annexation of the West Bank, suggests that Israel’s ambitions for the territory are imminent. , said HA Hellyer, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.

The Trump administration has also nominated Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik for the post of US ambassador to the UN. Stefanik spoke of Israel’s “biblical right” to the West Bank and described the number of UN votes against Israel as proof of the organization’s “anti-Semitic rot.”

“Many of Trump’s picks, like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth or his new National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, would suggest that we completely abandon the very limited and limited restraints we have on Israeli behavior,” Hellyer said.