The United States has called on Israel to take action against violent settler groups in the occupied West Bank.
The US State Department said it would impose visa restrictions on Israeli settlers involved in attacks on peace, security or stability in the occupied West Bank.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the decision Tuesday, a day after the State Department said Israel had not taken sufficient measures to respond to settler attacks that have driven many Palestinians from their lands .
“Today, the Department of State is implementing a new visa restriction policy targeting individuals suspected of participating in attacks on peace, security, or stability in the West Bank, including committing acts violence or taking other measures that unduly restrict civilian access to essential goods. basic services and necessities,” Blinken said.
President Joe Biden and other senior US officials have repeatedly warned that Israel must act to end Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, which has intensified since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7.
“We have stressed to the Israeli government the need to do more to hold accountable extremist settlers who have committed violent attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank,” Blinken said.
Blinken did not announce individual visa bans, but department spokesman Matthew Miller said the bans would be implemented starting Tuesday and would cover “dozens” of settlers and their families, and more to come. He did not give a number or identify any of the people targeted for privacy reasons.
Israeli settler violence has long targeted Palestinian communities in the West Bank, and attacks have increased over the past year as Israel’s far-right government, which itself includes ultranationalist settlers, signals its support .
Today, I announced a new policy of visa restrictions targeting individuals and their family members involved in or significantly contributing to actions that undermine peace, security and stability in the West Bank. Violence against civilians will have consequences.
– Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) December 5, 2023
The settler attacks have further intensified amid the ongoing war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas, which launched a deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7 that killed around 1,200 people and took around 240 others hostage.
After the attack, Israel launched a devastating assault on Gaza that killed more than 16,200 people and displaced more than 1.5 million others, according to Palestinian officials.
Since the October 7 attack, Israeli settlers have killed at least nine Palestinians in the West Bank, three times more than in all of 2022, and attacks on Palestinian villages and farmers have become commonplace.
While Palestinian attacks on Israeli settlers and soldiers in the West Bank are usually met with harsh reprisals from Israeli forces, accountability for attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, which often take place under the gaze of Israeli soldiers, are extremely rare.
Palestinians have described the settler violence as part of a broader Israeli effort to force them from their land.
In 2018, Israel passed a controversial bill known as the Nation-State Law that, among other things, called Jewish settlement efforts a “national value” that the state would “encourage and promote.”