US sanctions ‘Hilltop Youth,’ treating extreme settler activists as organized group
Israeli official slams timing of announcement as Israel braced for Iran missile attack, along with ‘shocking lack of understanding’ since no official group exists under this name
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
The United States announced sanctions Tuesday against “Hilltop Youth,” treating the young religious hardliners — who attempt to set up illegal outposts throughout the West Bank and have been known to use violence against Palestinians and Israeli security forces — as an organized group.
It is unclear whether the sanctions can be effective since there is no formal organization known as Hilltop Youth. Rather, it is a term used to identify far-right activists who live in the West Bank. The European Union, the United Kingdom and Australia sanctioned the same “group” earlier this year.
But the US move was blasted by an Israeli official who slammed the Biden administration’s decision to announce it as Israel was preparing to thwart an Iranian missile attack, which was launched later Tuesday evening.
Designating a group that does not formally exist also “demonstrates a shocking level of misunderstanding” of the phenomenon, the Israeli official told The Times of Israel, arguing that it is further proof that the sanctions imposed by the US against Israeli extremists are “purely political” and not aimed at actually addressing the issue.
A spokesperson for the US Treasury Department, which levied the sanctions against the so-called Hilltop Youth, did not respond to a request for clarification on the matter.
In its announcement, the Treasury Department described Hilltop Youth as “a violent extremist group that has repeatedly attacked Palestinians and destroyed Palestinian homes and property in the West Bank.”
“Through these violent activities, Hilltop Youth is actively destabilizing the West Bank and harming the peace and security of Palestinians and Israelis alike,” the announcement continues. “Hilltop Youth has devastated Palestinian communities and carried out killings, mass arson, and other so-called ‘price tag’ attacks to exact revenge and intimidate Palestinian civilians, and has repeatedly clashed with the Israeli military as it counters their activities.”
The Treasury Department pointed to an attack that hilltop youth carried out in the Palestinian town of al-Mughayyir during which they set fire to homes, buildings, and vehicles, beat villagers, looted property, including livestock, and left one Palestinian dead.
Such far-right activists perpetrated a similar rampage in June 2023 in the Palestinian town of Turmus Aiya, leaving another Palestinian dead and others injured, the US readout said.
Hilltop youth are known for vandalizing churches and mosques, spray-painted hateful graffiti messages on Palestinian-owned property, and uprooting olive trees in an effort to intimidate and spread fear, the announcement adds.
Nonetheless, none of this describes the work of an official organization with members, rather lawless youth, often with little to no assets to seize.
Alongside the Treasury announcement, the State Department issued its own sanctions against two Israeli settlers — Eitan Yardeni, for his connection to violence targeting West Bank civilians and Avichai Suissa, the leader of Hashomer Yosh, an already sanctioned group that brings young volunteers to settler farms across the territory, including small farming outposts that rights groups say are the primary drivers of settler violence across the territory.
The designation of Hilltop Youth, Yardeni and Suissa made up the seventh batch of sanctions issued by the US through the executive order Biden signed in February, aimed at curbing rampant and unchecked settler violence against Palestinians. Twenty-seven Israeli extremists and entities have been sanctioned thus far in total.
The US sanctions largely flew under the radar in Israel amid Iran’s missile attack on Tuesday, which Washington helped Israel thwart.
But after the last batch was announced in late August, 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.
