88 Democrats urge Biden to sanction Smotrich, Ben Gvir for ‘promoting settler violence’

Eighty-eight Democratic lawmakers have signed onto a letter urging US President Joe Biden to sanction far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich before he departs the White House in January.

Smotrich and Ben Gvir are “driving policies that promote settler violence, weaken the Palestinian Authority, facilitate de facto and de jure annexation, and destabilize the West Bank,” the House and Senate lawmakers argue in a letter sent on October 29 but was not made public until Thursday.

The Biden administration has weighed the unprecedented step in recent months, but has thus far held off on the move, with the president feeling that the US should not be sanctioning officials from a democratic ally, American officials have told The Times of Israel.

Internal calls to sanction Ben Gvir and Smotrich have recently grown, however, as settler violence has continued unabated and Israel advances steps aimed at further expanding its presence and grip on the West Bank. The sanctions would likely be implemented through an executive order Biden signed last February aimed at targeting Israeli and Palestinian extremists destabilizing the West Bank.

Ben Gvir and Smotrich have called for Israel to formally annex much of the territory now that Trump has been elected, given that he and his aides have been less critical — if not outright supportive — of Israel’s presence in the disputed territory.

But a move to sanction them would almost certainly be reversed by President-elect Donald Trump and it also comes with significant questions regarding enforcement. If Israel continues to pay the ministerial salaries of Smotrich and Ben Gvir, the government would be exposed to sanctions of its own, which is likely not the administration’s intention, given its support for the US-Israel relationship more broadly.

“Government leaders instigating violence must be subject to US sanctions… With radical officials in the Netanyahu government continuing to enable settler violence and enact annexationist policies, it is clear that further sanctions are urgently needed,” the letter states.

The signatories are largely made up of some of the more progressive Democrats in Congress, but they also include the more moderate Senator Chris Coons of Delaware — a close Biden ally — as well as Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democratic appropriator who, this year, received the endorsement of a PAC affiliated with the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, and Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the number-two Democrat in the Senate. Eight Jewish lawmakers are also among the signatories

JTA contributed to this report.