UK sanctions Amana settlement development group over illegal outposts

Britain has sanctioned organizations involved in the construction of Israeli settler outposts in the West Bank, a government update shows.

The sanctions target seven settler outposts and organizations and are taken under Britain’s global human rights sanctions regime, the notice shows.

Those sanctioned include Amana, the settlement movement’s development arm, which Britain says is “involved in the construction of illegal settler outposts and providing funding and other economic resources for Israeli settlers involved in threatening and perpetrating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank.”

Amana was sanctioned by Canada in June and US officials have told The Times of Israel that the Biden administration is considering the step as well.

Amana is the most prominent Israeli development organization in the West Bank and settler leaders have been urgently lobbying the Israeli government to try to thwart international sanctions in recent months.

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.

Outpost residents have often been cited as perpetrators of attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, which are very rarely prosecuted by Israel and have led to sanctions by Western countries over the past year.