After mix-up, US lifts sanctions on Israeli man, blacklists similarly named activist
IDF reservist Aviad Shlomo Sarid says he was ‘completely surprised’ to find bank account, credit card blocked; far-right activist Shlomo Sarid slams ‘draconian sanctions’
Four days after wrongly sanctioning an Israeli man when he was confused with a similarly named right-wing activist, the US State Department on Monday fixed the error and put the correct individual on its blacklist.
Washington issued its fifth batch of sanctions against Israeli extremists and illegal outposts on Thursday, targeting three individuals and five entities, including the co-heads of the already-sanctioned Tzav 9 group, Reut Ben Haim and Shlomo Sarid.
The far-right group has led attacks on humanitarian aid convoys en route to Gaza in Israel and the West Bank, insisting that no aid should reach the Strip as long as hostages are being held there.
Shortly after the US announcement, it was revealed that the State Department had confused Sarid with an uninvolved Israeli named Aviad Shlomo Sarid, listing his ID number and birthdate instead of that of the Sarid who heads Tzav 9.
Aviad Shlomo Sarid, who lives in the West Bank’s Revava settlement, had his bank account and credit card blocked due to the error.
The State Department on Monday replaced him on the list with the correct personal information of the Tzav 9 co-head, whose full name is Shlomo Yehezkel Hai Sarid.
It did not say whether it had apologized to Aviad Shlomo Sarid for the error.
The other Sarid, who goes by the name Aviad — not Shlomo — told Kan news on Monday that he was “completely surprised by the whole thing.”
Dressed during the interview in his Israel Defense Forces uniform, he noted that he has been serving as a reservist on Israel’s northern border for the past seven months, far from where Tzav 9 activists have been blocking aid trucks headed for Gaza, in the West Bank and southern Israel.
Sarid said that with his funds blocked, his friends were helping him out with money and he hoped the issue would be resolved quickly.
Tzav 9’s Sarid, meanwhile, doubled down on his activism in an interview with the Israel Hayom daily on the sanctions, saying he and his group would “continue to do everything to change the policy of aiding Hamas, which harms our soldiers, until all hostages are returned.”
He added that Tzav 9 now had a new objective: “Fighting the draconian sanctions set by the American administration against legitimate protest activists within an independent, seemingly democratic ally, without basis, advance notice or an option to appeal.”
The Israeli government needs to “wake up and defend its citizens,” he said.
The activities have gone beyond protests, with activists sometimes ransacking trucks and vandalizing vehicles. Police have faced criticism for failing to prevent several of the attacks.
Ben Haim, Sarid’s co-chair, became the first woman targeted since US President Joe Biden signed an executive order in February declaring a national emergency that allows him to implement new measures to combat settler violence.
The US sanctions were also imposed last week on four West Bank outposts owned or controlled by other previously designated individuals “who have weaponized them as bases for violent actions to displace Palestinians,” according to the US State Department. “Outposts like these have been used to disrupt grazing lands, limit access to wells, and launch violent attacks against neighboring Palestinians.”
While the international community considers all settlements illegal, Israel differentiates between settlement homes built and permitted by the Defense Ministry on land owned by the state, and illegal outposts built without the necessary permits, often on private Palestinian land. In recent years, though, the government has increasingly sought to retroactively authorize the wildcat outposts, rather than demolish them.
Last week’s sanctions also targeted the anti-miscegenation Lehava group led by the already-sanctioned Benzi Gopstein, an ally of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.
