Nearly 90 Democrats Urge Biden to Sanction Smotrich, Ben-Gvir Before Trump's Return - U.S. News - Haaretz.com
WASHINGTON – Nearly 90 Democrats from both houses of Congress on Thursday urged U.S. President Joe Biden to implement sanctions on far-right Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, and also the pro-settlement organizations Regavim and Amana.
Their letter represents one final push from a significant portion of the Democratic Party, imploring the Biden administration to take further action against extremist Israeli elements endangering the stability of the region. It comes just over two months before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.
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"Given their critical roles in driving policies that promote settler violence, weaken the Palestinian Authority, facilitate de facto and de jure annexation, and destabilize the West Bank, we urge you to sanction Finance Minister Smotrich and National Security Minister Ben-Gvir pursuant to Executive Order 14115," the lawmakers wrote. "Government leaders instigating violence must be subject to U.S. sanctions; those in leadership responsible for the lawlessness must be held to account."
While several U.S. officials have long advocated for sanctions against the far-right ministers, they have been met with opposition due to concern regarding the precedent-setting nature of imposing sanctions on democratically elected leaders of a U.S. ally.
A conference in southern Israel last month, calling for the Jewish resettlement of Gaza.Credit: Tomer Appelbaum
There had been renewed hope among Democrats that Biden would implement such sanctions during his lame duck period, before Trump assumes power alongside political appointees favorable toward Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies' annexationist aspirations for the West Bank and northern Gaza.
Much of that hope dissipated this week, however, when the U.S. declined to suspend offensive arms sales to Israel despite it failing to improve humanitarian aid supplies into Gaza.
"We write to express our deep concern about the rise in settler violence, settlement expansion, and measures adopted to weaken the Palestinian Authority and otherwise destabilize the West Bank," the lawmakers stated.
"Violent settlers, fueled by the inflammatory rhetoric and incitement to violence by members of the Israeli cabinet," including Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, and "empowered by extremist organizations like Regavim and Amana, have carried out over 1,270 recorded attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, averaging more than three violent attacks per day. The attackers have destroyed homes, stolen livestock, wounded over 200 Palestinian civilians and killed 11."
A man walking past an electoral billboard bearing portraits of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flanked by extreme right politicians Itamar Ben Gvir, Bezalel Smotrich and Michael Ben Ari, with a caption in Hebrew reading "Kahane Lives."Credit: Thomas Coex/AFP
The lawmakers, led by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Rep. Sean Casten and Sen. Dick Durbin, pointedly praised Biden for his executive order in February that cleared the path toward unprecedented U.S. sanctions against Israelis who endangered the stability of the West Bank. These included organizations implicated in violent extremist activity, and instigators from the settler movement and settlement outposts from which violent attacks are launched.
"We also believe that the administration should continue to increase efforts to ensure all actors complicit in this violence are subject to U.S. sanctions equally," they wrote, citing the urgent need for sanctions thanks to "radical officials in the Netanyahu government continuing to enable settler violence and enact annexationist policies."
They continued: "The key individuals and entities that are destabilizing the West Bank – thereby also threatening the security of Israel and the broader region, and U.S. national security as well – should be directly held accountable. The message that such actions are unacceptable from leaders, including within the Israeli government, must be heard," they continued.
They noted how Smotrich has "seized the opportunity to take steps to advance illegal and dangerous annexation of the West Bank" by approving thousands of new settler homes, securing Israel's largest seizure of West Bank land in three decades and enabling settlement construction that even violates Israeli law.
Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen during a press conference in Washington, January 2020.Credit: Julio Cortez/AP
They decried his "toxic and inciting rhetoric in public and private" while shielding other instigators from accountability, as well as his policies as finance minister significantly compromising the stability of the West Bank's economy through withholding tax revenues and denying tens of thousands of work permits since October 7, 2023.
Regarding Ben-Gvir, the lawmakers stated that he "played a prominent role in inciting violence against Palestinian civilians, encouraging the construction of illegal outposts, and preventing enforcement against violent settlers." They also noted how he distributes rifles at political events, "prompting serious concern by U.S. officials that U.S.-manufactured weapons could be used in settler attacks against Palestinians by his civilian 'security squads.'"
Ben-Gvir used his authority to prevent the police from protecting humanitarian convoys bound for Gaza, while weaponizing Israel's police force and refusing to prosecute extremist attacks in the West Bank, they added.
"Like Smotrich, Ben-Gvir uses dangerous rhetoric publicly at a precarious moment, including calling on Israel to annex the West Bank and encouraging police officers to shoot any 'terrorist' even if they do not pose a threat," they wrote.
New settlement housing units in the Beit Aryeh neighborhood, in the West Bank.Credit: Hadas Parush
The lawmakers flagged Amana specifically as an organization that "has long played a key role in establishing the majority of West Bank settlements and provides loans and building infrastructure for new outposts that are illegal under Israeli law, including agricultural farms that facilitate settler violence against Palestinian communities."
With Regavim, an organization co-founded by Smotrich in 2006, they stated that its "mission is to obstruct Palestinian construction in the West Bank, causing displacement and exacerbating tensions. Regavim also played a crucial role in organizing Tzav 9, which has already been sanctioned for its role in impeding the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza."
Thursday's letter comes days before Sen. Bernie Sanders will bring to the Senate floor his joint resolution of disapproval concerning $20 billion in arms sales to Israel. While the vote is virtually guaranteed not to pass, it will offer the most vivid test yet of how low the Israeli government's standing is within the Democratic Party.