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Among the slew of executive orders signed by United States President Donald Trump after taking office on Monday was the lifting of sanctions imposed on more than 30 Israeli settlement groups and organizations by former President Joe Biden's administration.
Settler violence has long been a fact of life for Palestinians living within the occupied West Bank. But the attacks and theft of Palestinian land have jumped since the start of Israel's war on Gaza.
Trump's move was celebrated by the far right in Israel, although it came soon after the new president called for a cease-fire in Gaza, much to the anger of that faction. So what can we learn from the lifting of sanctions and what will be Trump's policy towards Israel and Palestine?
What were the penalties imposed on the settlers?
Under the terms of the sanctions, individuals and entities were blocked from accessing all US property, assets, and the US financial system.
Who were the sanctions aimed at?
Illegal Israeli settlements have been built in the West Bank since it was captured by Israel in 1967. The settlements are built on occupied Palestinian land and are part of efforts by the Setter movement and the Israeli government to increase control over the West Bank. Palestinians stress that the settlements – where they are not allowed to live – effectively make it impossible to establish a Palestinian state.
A number of individuals and legal entities were affected by the sanctions. Among them were the settlement development organization Amana as well as its subsidiary Binyanei Bar Amana Ltdboth of which were identified by US officials as among the organizations serving as umbrella bodies for violent and extremist settler activity.
Individuals such as David Chai Chasdai, with convictions in Israel for violence against Palestinians dating back more than a decade, were also included, as were many settlers determined by US officials to have established illegal outposts or settlements on Palestinian land, such as Swiss Farm , established by settler Zvi Bar Yosef, described by the anti-occupation researcher Dror Etkes, as being responsible for “the most brutal attacks I've ever heard of in terms of settler attacks.”
However, despite the uncompromising rhetoric of the Biden administration, plans to sanction the ultra-Orthodox Netza Yehuda Battalion after a series of alleged abuses, including the arbitrary killing and torture of Palestinian civilians, were postponed after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly objected.
Why did the US impose sanctions on the citizens of its ally
The sanctions came as the Biden administration faced pressure to use its power to halt Israel's war on Gaza, including by halting arms sales.
Unwilling to do so, the administration instead took several smaller measures aimed at influencing Israel's actions and expressing its displeasure, such as sanctions against select settler groups and individuals.
in November former State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said both Biden and his secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, “repeatedly emphasized to their Israeli counterparts that Israel must do more to stop violence against civilians in the West Bank and hold accountable those responsible for it'.
The Israeli government is dominated by far-right pro-settlement figures, including Minister of Finance Betzalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, who served as national security minister until last weekend, when he resigned in protest at a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
In November, Ben-Gvir responded to the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Netanyahu by suggesting that Israel annex the West Bank. Earlier that month, in anticipation of a Trump presidency, Smotrich goes further by ordering the annexation of the occupied territory to be prepared this year.
Have sanctions curbed violence?
no
In 2024, the period in which US sanctions were imposed, the Recorded by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). the highest number of attacks in almost two decades since OCHA began documenting such incidents, noting “approximately 4,250 Palestinians displaced, 1,760 structures destroyed and about 1,400 incidents involving Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.”
Al Jazeera and human rights groups, including Amnesty International, are traced numerous incidents of settler violence against Palestinian homes in the course of Israel's war on Gaza and consistently found that settler attacks were either ignored or even incited by security forces under Ben-Gvir's command.
What was Israel's response to the lifting of sanctions?
Both Smotrich and Ben-Gvir celebrated Trump's lifting of sanctions.
Posting on social media, Ben-Gvir wrote that he welcomed “the historic decision by US President-elect Donald Trump to lift the sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on settlers from Judea and Samaria,” he said, using the term for the occupied West Bank used by the Israeli government.
Finance Minister Smotrich was equally clear, characterizing the sanctions as “severe and blatant foreign interference in Israel's internal affairs.”
I sincerely thank President Donald Trump for his righteous decision to reverse the sanctions imposed by the Biden administration against settlers and activists in right-wing organizations. These sanctions were severe and blatant foreign interference in Israel's internal affairs and… pic.twitter.com/Lp1I8oFixa
— Bezalel Smotrich (@bezalelsm) January 21, 2025
Is this a sign of what Trump's policy towards Israel and Palestine will be?
Although many in the pro-Palestinian camp credit Trump for pushing for a cease-fire in Gaza, he was overwhelmingly pro-Israel during his first term and is likely to be the same for the next four years.
Trump has been willing to hand the Israeli right several victories in the past, even when it was at odds with long-term US policy. For example, he moved the US embassy to Jerusalem and acknowledged Israel's illegal annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights during his first term. He also introduced an initiative that would recognize Israeli sovereignty over illegal settlements in the West Bank.
Members of its current circle include Mike HuckabeeTrump's pick for evangelical and pro-settler US ambassador to Israel, as well as billionaire “mega-donor” Miriam Adelson, who is reported to support Israel's annexation of the West Bank, suggest that Israel's ambitions for the territory may be getting closer, said HA Hellyer, Senior Fellow, Royal United Services Institute.
The Trump administration also nominated Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik to be the US ambassador to the United Nations. Stefanik spoke of Israel's “biblical right” to the West Bank and characterized the number of times UN votes have gone against Israel as evidence of the organization's “anti-Semitic rot.”
“Many of Trump's appointees, like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth or his new national security adviser, Mike Waltz, suggest that we're seeing the existing very limited and limited restraint on Israel's behavior will be completely abandoned,” Hellyer said.
