The Biden administration announced sanctions on two West Bank settler outposts on Thursday (3/14/24). This is the first time that Israeli settlements, rather than individual settlers, have been hit with economic sanctions. These sanctions might seem like ineffectual moves, but that is only until you take into account the reach of the US financial system.
The Bank of Israel has announced that Israeli banks had no choice but to comply. Needless to say, Netanyahu, Smotrich, and Ben-Giver are not happy. Smotrich had directed the banks not to comply, but that command has fallen on deaf ears. No bank is going to cut itself off from the global financial system.
Hapoalim, one of Israel's two largest banks, said it respects international sanctions and will comply with any legal order - though it declined to discuss any specific cases.
Its main rival, Leumi, declined comment. But Yinon Levi, one of the settlers under U.S. sanctions, told Israel's Kan radio that Leumi had frozen his private and business accounts, and overturned his attempt to transfer out money.
David Chai Chasdai, another of the settlers under sanctions, told an Israeli newspaper that his account at the Postal Bank had been frozen.
Israeli banks heed US anti-settler sanctions
If I am reading this right, an Israeli citizen who deposited their Israeli money in an Israeli bank has just had his account frozen and can’t get his money. Smotrich said, "It is not possible for an Israeli citizen with Israeli money in an Israeli bank to be deprived of rights and assets due to an American order." I guess it is totally possible. Tell me again how Biden has no power to make Israel do anything.
Who is David Chai Chasdai, and why has he been sanctioned? Chasdai is typical of the violent thugs that have been sanctioned. Chasdai was the leader of a mob of settler terrorists who perpetrated the Huwara pogrom.
On 26 February 2023, hundreds of Israeli settlers went on a violent late-night rampage in Huwara and other Palestinian villages in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, leaving one civilian dead and 100 other Palestinians injured, four critically, and the town ablaze. It was the worst attack stemming from Israeli settler violence in the northern West Bank in decades.
Israeli soldiers were in the area while the rampage by the settlers unfolded, and did not intervene. The rampage was called a pogrom by an Israeli commander in charge of the area.
A few days after US and UK sanctions on Yinon Levi were announced, an online crowdfunding campaign brought more than $140,000 for Levi and his settler outpost from over 3,000 donors. Any American citizen who donated would have committed a crime which could result in fines ranging from a few thousand dollars to several millions and/or prison time of up to 30 years. Hopefully, the Biden administration will be enforcing these sanctions.
$100s of millions of dollars from private US donors fund the settler movement. NYC “Charities” raise tax-exempt donations to arm settler thugs with military gear. At the same time, they declare to the IRS that the money is to “provide funding for higher educational institutes in Israel.”
Bankrupting the settler movement will be a lot more effective than waiting for the Israeli government to stop illegal settlements, which no Israeli government, left, right, or center, has ever done. Biden has been clear that the illegal settlements are an obstacle to peace and that violence against Palestinians in the West Bank is totally unacceptable. Well, it turns out that Biden has the tools to do something about it. The President can do an end run around Netanyahu and his settler thugs and follow the money. He can cut off all funding from private donors in the US and elsewhere by sanctioning all illegal settlements. According to International law and US official policy that would include every settlement on the other side of the green line.
The settler enterprise is not economically self-sufficient. It is incredibly expensive to keep secure, and it is totally dependent on a combination of government funding and overseas donors.
Americans account for only about 15% of the total settler population in the West Bank and East Jerusalem but their influence outweighs their numbers.
Cutting off the settlements from the banking system and making it illegal for Americans to support or live in settlements would add a huge burden to a system that is already strained. Getting serious about choking off the money that is keeping the settler movement afloat will go a long way to making a two-state solution and peace a possibility. The US has spent decades talking; it’s time for action.
Instead of Netanyahu blowing up Biden’s plans for peace, it’s time Biden started to put the wrecking ball to Netanyahu’s plans. It’s time the tail stopped wagging the dog.