US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Tuesday that the possibility of the Biden Administration imposing sanctions on Israeli settlers who allegedly attack Palestinian Arabs in Judea and Samaria is "under consideration."
"We don’t like to announce sanctions that we’re going to make before we’ve implemented them," Miller told reporters.
Miller further refused to comment on whether the US government would impose sanctions on American citizens who attack Palestinian Arabs.
The Biden Administration has commented multiple times on alleged settler violence in Judea and Samaria and demanded that the Israeli government work to combat this phenomenon. Antisemitic violence in Judea is more common than anti-Arab violence, and three Israelis have been murdered in terrorist attacks in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem in recent weeks.
On Sunday, Politico reported that US President Joe Biden directed officials in his administration to prepare visa bans and sanctions for Israelis who attack Palestinian Arabs.
A memo to aides like Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday, ordered their agencies “to develop policy options for expeditious action against those responsible for the conduct of violence in the West Bank.”
Parts of the memo became known after Biden published an op-ed in The Washington Post revealing his intentions for such a move. “The United States is prepared to take our own steps, including issuing visa bans against extremists attacking civilians in the West Bank,” he wrote in the op-ed.
Biden stated: “I continue to be alarmed about extremist settlers attacking Palestinians in the West Bank. They’re attacking Palestinians in places that they’re entitled to be, and it has to stop. They have to be held accountable."