JERUSALEM (news agencies) — When the Biden administration imposed sanctions this month against Israeli settler Yinon Levi for allegedly assaulting Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, his supporters quickly sprang into action.
Within days, an online fundraiser collected over $140,000 for Levi and his unauthorized settler outpost from over 3,000 donors worldwide. Now, those contributions may be putting the donors, crowdfunding sites, along with the financial services firms that process their payments, at risk of penalties for violating the U.S. sanctions.
“It’s not even a close call,” said Britt Mosman, a former attorney at the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the U.S. government agency that enforces sanctions.
She said any American who donates money to a sanctioned person or group puts themself at risk. “It is a pretty straightforward application of the sanctions prohibitions,” she said.
Levi is among seven hard-line settlers targeted this month by the U.S. and Britain for alleged attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank. The sanctions prevent them from accessing the U.S. financial system and expose them to an asset freeze, as well as travel and visa bans in the U.K. Israeli banks froze the settlers’ personal bank accounts in response.
In Levi’s case, funds from the crowdsourcing campaign, raised on the Israeli website Givechak, were collected by a nonprofit under the auspices of the Israeli settler council in the area.
“A few days ago, Yinon Levi’s accounts were confiscated in a scandalous decision,” read a note on the fundraising page before it was taken down. “All donations will go to the further development of the farm and the land of Israel.”
Sanctions experts say the order applies to U.S. citizens and companies involved in the campaigns — and gives the U.S. government authority to blacklist Israeli entities allowing U.S. citizens or companies to violate sanctions. The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network — known as FinCEN — also alerted U.S. financial institutions against doing business with groups that support or have previously supported settler violence in the West Bank.
Two crowdfunding pages for sanctioned settlers have now been taken down.
Israeli media reported that some companies involved with the crowdfunding have taken action to disentangle themselves from the settlers. Their reactions show how the U.S. and British orders, aimed at just a handful of individuals, could ripple widely in the intertwined global financial system.
Eitay Mack, an Israeli human rights lawyer, said crowdfunding campaigns have become crucial to raising money for settlement outposts. While Israel has established scores of settlements across the occupied territory, the outposts are not authorized, though the government gives them tacit support. The international community overwhelmingly considers all West Bank settlements illegal and obstacles to peace.
“This is a huge loophole that has been going on for years,” Mack said. “If the crowdfunding could be stopped, this could be a game changer. The outposts are not able to operate without this money.”
Levi founded Meitarim Farm in 2021 in the South Hebron Hills, according to a contract between him and the local regional council obtained by media. The farm’s development was helped along by crowdsourcing — a campaign on website JGive, started by a non-profit, raised nearly $6,000 for the outpost.
As the outpost developed, over 300 people from four nearby Palestinian hamlets fled their homes, citing violence by Levi and other settlers, according to anti-settlement watchdog group Peace Now.
After the U.S. sanctions were announced, a fundraiser popped up on Givechak, run by the “Mount Hebron Fund.” Contact information listed a government email address, indicating it was linked to the Har Hebron Regional Council. The fund has an account with Bank Leumi, putting the bank at potential risk of U.S. penalties.
The fundraiser’s contact was Levi’s brother, Itamar, to whom Levi transferred ownership of a company he co-owned, apparently to try to skirt sanctions, Israeli media reported. Even after the page was taken down, Itamar Levi continued to accept donations to a Bank Leumi account, emails obtained by the news agencies showed.
Levi, his brother, the fund and the council declined comment.
Givechak does not divulge donors’ whereabouts, but it is possible to donate from the U.S. Several donors wrote their names in English. The page was circulated on American social media platforms.
A major donor was listed as Chaim Ben Pesach, head of an ultranationalist Jewish group designated as a terrorist organization by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Ben Pesach posted the page to X, formerly Twitter, urging followers to “help the heroes before we lose our sovereignty completely.” Contacted by the news agencies, he denied making the 5000 shekel ($1,500) donation, but said Levi’s children were “victims of the Biden administration’s anti-Israel and antisemitic sanctions.”
After the page was taken down, a clearing company refused to transfer the funds to Levi’s family, which filed a lawsuit to try to secure the money.
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