Biden Administration Sanctions on Jewish Settlers in the West Bank: Political and Economic Implications for Us-Israel Relations

Abstract

The article focuses on identifying the specifics of sanctions imposed by the Biden administration against radical Israeli individuals and legal entities actively involved in the settlement movement. The author relies on the Palestinian-Israeli economic peace concept, defining US pressure as its atypical manifestation, as well as on a broad interpretation of the term «sanctions» with the determining significance of their political effect. The dynamics of the US – Israeli relations from the inauguration of the 37th Israeli government to the start of the IDF military campaign in the Gaza Strip with a particular emphasis on the White House's criticism of far-right ministers who rely on settler’s support, statistics and assessment of the reasons for the surge in clashes between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank in the pre-US sanctions year of 2023 are analyzed. The Executive Order of the US President No. 14115, regulating restrictions on the active members of the settlement movement, organizations and foundations supporting them, and related documents that directly or indirectly impacted on the nature of the restrictions in connection with the situation in the West Bank are examined; analogies are drawn with similar measures of influence approved by the US in different years towards Syria. The author comes to conclusions that the limited impact of the American sanctions on Israel was a consequence of poorly developed restrictions, the lack of control over their implementation, as well as insufficient consideration of the specifics of the situation in the West Bank, characterized not only by the growth of violence on the part of the most radical settlers, but also by the intensification of inter-Palestinian contradictions.