President Donald Trump has lifted sanctions that were imposed on West Bank settler groups by the Biden administration, according to a White House announcement Monday.
Trump rescinded Executive Order 14115, which was issued on February 1, 2024, and had authorized sanctions "on Persons Undermining Peace, Security, and Stability in the West Bank." The Biden-era sanctions had frozen U.S. assets of several Israeli settler individuals and entities and prohibited Americans from conducting business with them.
The Biden administration had implemented these sanctions after repeatedly calling on the Israeli government to hold extremist settlers accountable for actions that Washington believed hindered prospects for a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians.
This policy shift marks a return to Trump's previous stance on settlements. During his first term in 2019, Trump had departed from the longstanding U.S. position that considered settlements illegal - a position that Biden later reinstated.
Israel Ganz, chairman of the Yesha settler council and a close associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had anticipated this move, telling Reuters in October that he expected the sanctions to be lifted if Trump returned to office.
Head of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, who attended Trump's inauguration, said after the President's decision: "President Donald Trump's decision to cancel the scandalous sanctions of his predecessor, Biden, upon entering the White House, is not just an important moral message - it's also a diplomatic message that the United States is returning to being a friend of Israel. "This decision by Trump demonstrates how much he loves Israel and how pro-Israel and committed to Israel his base is. This illustrates more than anything how much the Israeli government and the Prime Minister have a historic opportunity, both in Judea and Samaria and in the State of Israel, to do great historic things – whether the Trump administration agrees or disagrees, because this is a disagreement between friends."
The timing of the announcement is notable, coming shortly after reported incidents of settler unrest in Palestinian villages where property was set ablaze.
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