US issues new batch of sanctions targeting West Bank settlers amid rampant violence
Biden administration blacklists security chief of radical Yitzhar settlement and a group funded by Israeli gov’t that secures illegal outposts; PM views move ‘with great severity’
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration issued its sixth batch of sanctions targeting Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, blacklisting a group that provides volunteer guards for illegal outposts and a civilian security guard for a flashpoint settlement who has allegedly engaged in attacks against Palestinians.
The sanctions against the Hashomer Yosh (Guardians of Judea and Samaria) organization, and against Yitzhak Levi Filant, the chief security officer for the Yitzhar settlement in the northern West Bank, came days after two violent settler rampages through Palestinian towns in the West Bank left a pair of Palestinians dead. No arrests have been made in the most recent attack near Bethlehem.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying that it “views with great severity” the imposition of sanctions against Israeli citizens, and said the issue was the subject of “deep discussions” with the US.
Several far-right coalition lawmakers, including MK Ariel Kallner of Netanyahu’s Likud party, also condemned the sanctions, with Kallner claiming “antisemitic persecution” by US President Joe Biden and Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
The head of the Shin Bet security service has recently been quoted lamenting in private meetings that the Israel Police, overseen by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, is refusing to crack down on the phenomenon of settler violence.
The lack of Israeli enforcement has led a handful of Western countries — led by the US — to begin issuing their own sanctions against Israeli extremists. Biden issued an executive order giving him authority to levy such sanctions in February, and 11 individuals and 11 entities have been designated since.
One of the primary activities of the Hashomer Yosh organization that was sanctioned Wednesday is arranging for volunteers to provide help and support for some 26 illegal farming outposts in the West Bank.
According to the State Department announcement, Hashomer Yosh has provided “material support” to the Meitarim Farm in the South Hebron Hills region of the West Bank run by Yinon Levi, who was sanctioned by the US in February for alleged violence against local Palestinian residents of the area.
Levi has been repeatedly accused by Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills of harassing local herders and instigating violence against residents of the area, and was specifically named in a petition to the High Court of Justice submitted in November as a key culprit in the forced displacement of the residents of the Palestinian village of Khirbet Zanuta, which lies just a few kilometers from Meitarim Farm.
Hashomer Yosh’s website does not currently list Meitarim Farm as one of the outposts it supports, although it has promoted commercial activities there.
Another farming outpost supported by Hashomer Yosh is Moshe’s Farm, established in 2020 and run by Moshe Sharvit. Also known as Emek Tirza Farm, the outpost was sanctioned by the US in March. Hashomer Yosh has provided the illegal outpost with volunteers and continues to promote the farm as one of the options for volunteers on its website.
Sharvit has been repeatedly accused of harassing local Palestinian farmers and their livestock, and has been filmed doing so with his ATV.
Hashomer Yosh has also provided support for Neriya Ben Pazi and Zvi Bar Yosef, who were designated by the US for their involvement in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, the State Department said.
“The volunteers also provided support by grazing the herds and purporting to ‘guard’ the outposts of US-designated individuals,” the State Department insisted.
Hashomer Yosh has received over NIS 8 million ($2.2 million) in direct funding from the Agriculture Ministry and the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience Ministry since 2018 for its various activities.
Although Filant’s role is akin to a security or law enforcement officer, he has engaged in malign activities outside the scope of his authority, the State Department said.
“In February 2024, he led a group of armed settlers to set up roadblocks and conduct patrols to pursue and attack Palestinians in their lands and forcefully expel them from their lands,” its announcement added.
The Yesh Din organization, which campaigns against West Bank settlements, accused Filant of “innumerable acts of violence and harm to Palestinians and their property” in the region around Yitzhar.
“For years, we have documented testimony of his [Levi’s] illegal actions, but we also hear from his victims that they are scared to complain about him to the police because of his unlimited power in the region,” Yesh Din said in response to the new US sanctions.
“Since the beginning of the [current] war, Levi and his armed civilian security squad, sometimes dressed in army uniforms, leave the area designated to them by law and abuse their authority,” the left-wing group added.
“Extremist settler violence in the West Bank causes intense human suffering, harms Israel’s security, and undermines the prospect for peace and stability in the region,” the State Department sanctions announcement asserted.
“It is critical that the government of Israel hold accountable any individuals and entities responsible for violence against civilians in the West Bank.”
Kallner, of the ruling Likud party, described Hashomer Yosh as a “pioneering organization” in a social media post defending the group and denounced the sanctions as a “gross violation of Israeli sovereignty.”
“To the US administration: President Biden and Vice President Mrs Harris, to tell us ‘don’t’ after the massacre will not move us. Stop the antisemitic persecution and don’t forget: No power in the world has succeeded and will not succeed in severing the connection between the people of Israel and its land,” Kallner wrote on X.
The previous round of US sanctions was announced in July targeted three individuals and five entities, including the anti-miscegenation Lehava group led by already-designated extremist Benzi Gopstein, an ally of Ben Gvir’s.
Other groups sanctioned in that round included the co-heads of the already-designated Tzav 9 group, Reut Ben Haim and Shlomo Sarid, who led attacks on humanitarian aid convoys en route to Gaza in Israel and the West Bank.
Treasury Department sanctions were also imposed on four West Bank outposts owned or controlled by other already-designated extremists including Meitarim Farm; HaMahoch Farm and Neria’s Farm, run by the aforementioned Ben Pazi; and Manne’s Farm, run by Issachar Manne, who was among the three individuals sanctioned in the latest batch named by the US.
