US and Europe freeze assets of key settlers in West Bank
The European Union and the United States have imposed tough new sanctions on figures alleged to be behind extremist violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.
The sanctions – announced within hours of each other by the EU and the US treasury – targeted a number of prominent individuals and organisations, most prominently Bentzi Gopstein, the leader of the Levaha group, who, according to reports in the Israeli media, has acted as an adviser to far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
While the EU sanctioned Lehava, a far-right group that campaigns against relationships between Jews and non-Jews, the US sanctioned Gopstein – who was convicted by an Israeli court earlier this year for racist statements – by name.
Also sanctioned by the EU were Meir Ettinger and Elisha Yered, two leading figures in the extremist Hilltop Youth, which the sanctions described as “a radical group consisting of members known for violent acts against Palestinians and their villages in the West Bank”.
The new round of sanctions against far-right figures in Israel marks the latest escalation of the international campaign against settler and extremist violence which has exploded in the occupied West Bank in the six months since Hamas’s attack on Israel from Gaza on 7 October last year.
As well as Gopstein, the US imposed sanctions on two entities it said helped raise thousands of dollars for two violent extremists in the West Bank who had already been targeted with US sanctions, underlining its intention to pursue those it sees as attempting to bypass sanctions.
For their part, the EU sanctions will include an asset freeze, a prohibition on provision of funds or economic resources to them or for their benefit and a travel ban to the EU for the individuals named.
Restrictive measures were agreed by the European Council of leaders in March in an official communiqué when they condemned extremist settler violence, stating that perpetrators must be held to account.