US President Joe Biden’s administration has issued a new round of sanctions against groups and individuals involved in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, as the United States continues to provide unwavering support for Israel’s Gaza war.
The US sanctions announced on Monday targeted the settlement development organisation Amana, as well as its subsidiary Binyanei Bar Amana Ltd.
Amana is a “key part of the Israeli extremist settlement movement” and supports settlements and farms in the occupied West Bank “from which in turn settlers commit violence”, the US Treasury Department said.
At the same time, the US State Department also sanctioned three individuals and a third organisation for their “roles in violence targeting civilians or in the destruction or dispossession of property” in the West Bank.
They included Shabtai Koshlevsky, the vice president and co-founder of Hashomer Yosh, an Israeli group already under US sanctions, and Zohar Sabah, who the State Department said has “engaged in threats and acts of violence against Palestinians, including in their homes”.
Sabah was also involved in an attack on Palestinian students and teachers at the Arab al-Kaabneh Primary School near Jericho in September, the department said.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Biden and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “have repeatedly stressed with their Israeli counterparts that Israel must do more to stop violence against civilians in the West Bank and hold accountable those responsible for it”.
“But, as we have also made clear, in the absence of such actions by the government of Israel, we will continue to take our own steps to hold those responsible for violent extremism accountable,” Miller told reporters on Monday afternoon.
He added that the Biden administration has sanctioned 33 individuals and entities over the last 10 months.
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