Biden administration imposes sanctions on major settlement organization

The United States added not only four new individuals to the list, but also the Amana organization, founded in 1979 to increase Jewish settlement in the occupied territories.

The goal of the organization, led by Ze’ev Haver, a veteran of the settler movement, is to bring the Jewish population in Judea and Samaria to one million. Amana also operates a subsidiary, Binyanei Bar Amana, which is involved in active commercial construction in the settlements.

Biden’s February 2024 executive order imposing sanctions on Israeli citizens who were said to “threaten the peace, security and stability of the West Bank” was an unprecedented move. The president called “extremist settler violence, the forced displacement of people, and the destruction of property” a major threat to US national security and foreign policy. On the basis of this decree, the US State Department periodically updates the sanctions lists, adding new names and organizations to them. After the United States, other Western states joined the sanctions against the Israeli extreme right.

The sanctions have hit settlers hard, with Israeli banks freezing the accounts of those affected by the restrictions and refusing to provide them with financial services. The Bank of Israel emphasized that violation of international sanctions regimes could have serious consequences for both individual financial institutions and the entire Israeli economy.

However, religious Zionist parties attempted to push for legislation requiring banks to continue providing services to sanctioned settlers. The bill was on the agenda of the ministerial legislation committee, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unexpectedly postponed its consideration, inviting his coalition colleagues to wait until late January, when Donald Trump took office.

Many Israeli politicians have high hopes for the future US president and hope that after his inauguration he will quickly cancel Biden’s decree and cancel all sanctions imposed on the settlers.

Previously, Cursor reported that Biden responded strangely to a reporter after he was asked about the Israeli hostages.