Biden expected to issue executive order targeting Israeli settlers in West Bank

President Joe Biden is expected to issue an executive order Thursday that aims to punish Israeli settlers who have been attacking Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to documents seen by POLITICO, two U.S. officials and a congressional aide.

As part of the rollout, the Biden administration will announce it is imposing sanctions on individuals who have engaged in such violence, which has killed or displaced many Palestinians from their lands, the documents say.

The National Security Council declined to comment.

The order comes as Biden is under growing pressure, including from Democrats, to be tougher on Israel as critics say its military campaign against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is a disproportionate reaction to the Hamas attack of Oct. 7.

It also comes as Biden is due Thursday to visit Michigan, a battleground state this election year that is home to many Arab Americans furious with his approach to the Israel-Hamas war.

Senior White House officials on Wednesday briefed Ron Dermer, a close confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on the move during his visit to Washington, the congressional staffer said.

Far-right Israeli settlers in the West Bank have for years staged attacks on many of the roughly 3 million Palestinians in the territory, often aimed at seizing land that the Palestinians claim for a future state. Such attacks spiked after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, leading to the emptying of entire Palestinian villages.

At the same time, Biden has faced intense pressure to appear more even-handed in the conflict as Hamas-controlled agencies have reported more than 25,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military campaign against the militant group.

In November, Biden directed top U.S. officials to develop options for punishing violent Israeli settlers. The memo sent to Cabinet officials like Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen broadly defined who could be a target.

They included people or entities that “have directly or indirectly engaged in actions or policies that threaten the security or stability of the West Bank,” take “actions that intimidate civilians in the West Bank with the purpose or effect of forcing displacement actions in the West Bank,” or make moves “that constitute human rights abuses or violations and actions that significantly obstruct, disrupt or prevent efforts to achieve a two-state solution.”

In December, Blinken announced U.S. visa restrictions on a number of extremist Israeli settlers.

Hundreds of thousands of Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, and their presence comes with a large amount of Israeli security, which means even less space for Palestinians to live. Many Israeli settlers do not believe in permitting a Palestinian state to exist. Such sentiments are more widespread among Israelis since the Hamas attack on their country, which killed 1,200 people.

But other than rhetorical pleas, top officials in the Biden administration had resisted pressuring Israel to rein in the settlers before the Oct. 7 attack. Such inaction was in line with Biden’s preference of trying to convince Israeli leaders through carrots instead of sticks, as well as worries about seeming to interfere with internal Israeli politics.

If past patterns hold, the new sanctions are likely to be more punishing in that they will likely include freezes on financial assets the settlers may hold in the United States, among other penalties.

The State and Treasury Departments are expected to issue details Thursday on the sanctions and how financial institutions should approach the issue, according to the documents.

The Biden administration has stepped up support for Palestinians after staunchly backing Israel’s retaliation against Hamas in Gaza, most notably by pushing for more humanitarian aid to enter the enclave.

In recent weeks, as Netanyahu’s government has stiff-armed American attempts to wind down the war and the U.S. develops “day after” scenarios, Washington has shifted its approach to weigh Palestinian concerns more.