Hashomer Yosh, a nonprofit, has said that it does not engage in violence and that the U.S. sanctions are based on false information.

By JNS

On the same day that Iran fired some 200 ballistic missiles at the Jewish state and two Palestinian terrorists killed seven people in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, the U.S. State Department announced sanctions against two Israelis in Judea and Samaria whom Foggy Bottom accused of “undermining peace, security and stability in the West Bank.”

The State Department said the two are “a violent Israeli settler and the CEO and director of U.S.-designated Hashomer Yosh.”

“The actions of these individuals have contributed to creating an environment where violence and instability thrive,” Foggy Bottom stated. “Their actions, collectively and individually, undermine peace, security and stability in the West Bank.”

(The Biden administration refers to part of Judea and Samaria as the “West Bank.”)

Hashomer Yosh, a nonprofit, has said that it does not engage in violence and that the U.S. sanctions are based on false information.

The U.S. Treasury Department identified the two Israelis as Eitan Yardeni and Avichai Suissa. It also designated Hilltop Youth, which the State Department said is “a violent extremist group that has rampaged through Palestinian communities in the West Bank.”

“It has carried out killings, mass arson and other so-called ‘price tag’ attacks to exact revenge and intimidate Palestinian civilians,” the State Department said. “Hilltop Youth has repeatedly clashed with the Israeli military when it tries to counter Hilltop Youth’s destructive activities.”

The Biden administration called on the Israeli government to “take action and hold violent actors, like those designated today, accountable.”

It added that “we will continue to use our tools to promote accountability for violence that threatens peace and stability in the region, no matter the national origin, ethnicity, race or religion of the perpetrators of such violence.”

“The worsening violence and instability in the West Bank are detrimental to the long-term interests of Israelis and Palestinians, and the actions of violent organizations like Hilltop Youth only exacerbate the crisis,” stated Bradley Smith, acting under secretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.

“The United States will continue to hold accountable the individuals, groups and organizations that facilitate these hateful and destabilizing acts,” Smith stated.

The State Department sent a fact sheet and press release on the sanctions to reporters hours after every civilian in Israel sheltered as the Islamic Republic bombed the Jewish state, the Israeli military said.

David Milstein, who advised Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign and worked for David Friedman, then-U.S. ambassador to Israel, wrote when the Treasury Department first announced the sanctions that they came “as Israel is fighting a war of survival against Iran and its terror proxies on seven fronts, and on the same day Iran is poised to launch another major escalatory attack from Iranian soil.”

“The Biden-Harris administration has shamefully abused sanctions authority to impose more illegitimate sanctions on Israeli organizations,” he wrote. “This is truly reprehensible.”

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The Biden administration’s practice of sanctioning citizens of an allied country has surprised both supporters and critics of Israel.

By Asaf Elia-Shalev, JTA

The United States announced sanctions against a nonprofit that has received funding from the Israeli government as well as the civilian security chief of a Judea and Samaria settlement.

The sanctions are the United States’ latest effort to curb extremism among settlers, and come as violence in Judea and Samaria has escalated.

The nonprofit, Hashomer Yosh, was founded a decade ago with the stated mission of supporting and protecting farms in Judea and Samaria settlements.

In its announcement of sanctions on Wednesday, the State Department accused the nonprofit of giving “material support” to an Israeli outpost and to settlers who are already under U.S. sanctions, in addition to fencing off the Palestinian village of Khirbet Zanuta to prevent the return of 250 Palestinian residents who had been driven off their land.

Also sanctioned on Wednesday was Yitzhak Levi Filant, the civilian security coordinator of the Yitzhar settlement in Judea and Samaria.

The State Department accused him of “malign activities” including leading a group of armed settlers in a February attack on Palestinians, aiming to expel them from their lands.

The penalties announced Wednesday were the latest round of several rounds of American sanctions to be placed on Israeli settlers and the groups aiding them.

Over the course of this year, the State Department has sanctioned several individual settlers, Judea and Samaria outposts, organizations accused of supporting sanctioned individuals, and a group that has sought to block aid from entering Gaza.

The State Department says that these sanctions are intended to urge the Israeli government to hold its citizens accountable when they commit violence against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria.

“Extremist settler violence in the West Bank causes intense human suffering, harms Israel’s security, and undermines the prospect for peace and stability in the region,” the department said.

“It is critical that the Government of Israel hold accountable any individuals and entities responsible for violence against civilians in the West Bank.”

This new round of sanctions comes amid escalating conflict in Judea and Samaria, including an Israeli airstrike and military operation in the Palestinian cities of Jenin and Tulkarm that has killed at least 10 people and prompted Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, to call for civilian evacuations and post online that “This is a war.”

The Israeli military says that those killed in the ground operation were armed terrorists and that the airstrike targeted a terrorist base.

The Israeli government protested the sanctions, opposing what it perceives as inappropriate American intervention into its own affairs.

“Israel views with utmost severity the imposition of sanctions on citizens of Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

“The issue is in pointed discussion with the United States.”

Hashomer Yosh has received funding from Israel’s Agriculture Ministry and the Ministry of the Negev, Galilee, and National Resilience, according to its public disclosure filings in Israel.

In response to the sanctions, the group claimed it is a lawful organization that supports Israeli agriculture.

“Sanctions on Hashomer are tantamount to sanctions on the State of Israel,” the organization said in a statement.

“Together we will stand strong and continue to support Hebrew farming in the Land of Israel.”

Historically, the U.S. government has reserved economic sanctions for rare cases, such as the communist regime in Cuba.

The Biden administration’s practice of sanctioning citizens of an allied country has surprised both supporters and critics of Israel.

However, recent reporting in the Washington Post indicates that the use of sanctions has quietly become an increasingly common tool in American foreign policy in recent years.

J Street, the liberal Israel lobby, praised the sanctions as sending “a message to the Netanyahu government and its extremist ministers.”

The statement by the group’s president, Jeremy Ben-Ami, added, “It recognizes the active role some Israeli officials and security services are playing in supporting, encouraging and enabling settler violence. We cannot give them a free pass as they threaten Palestinian families, undermine Israel’s security, and violate our core Jewish values of peace, justice and equality.”

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