Among the set of executive orders signed by US President Donald Trump following his inauguration on Monday is the lifting of sanctions imposed by the administration of former President Joe Biden on more than 30 Israeli settlement groups and entities.

Settler violence has long been a fact of life for Palestinians living within the occupied West Bank. But the attacks and Stealing Palestinian lands It has increased since the beginning of the Israeli war on Gaza.

The far-right in Israel celebrated Trump’s move, even though it came shortly after the new president pushed for a ceasefire in Gaza, which angered that faction. So, what can we learn from lifting sanctions, and what will Trump’s policy toward Israel and Palestine be?

What are the penalties imposed on settlers?

Under the terms of the sanctions, individuals and entities were denied access to all US property and assets, as well as the US financial system.

Who were the sanctions targeted?

Illegal Israeli settlements have been built throughout the West Bank since Israel took it over in 1967. The settlements have been built on captured Palestinian land and are part of efforts by the settler movement and the Israeli government to increase control over the West Bank. The Palestinians assert that the settlements – where they are not allowed to live – make it virtually impossible to establish a Palestinian state.

The sanctions affected a number of individuals and entities. Among them is the Settlement Development Organization Amanah, in addition to its subsidiary Binyani Bar Amanah LtdBoth have been identified by US officials to be among the organizations acting as an umbrella organization for violent and extremist settlement activity.

Also included are individuals, such as David Chasday, who were convicted in Israel of committing violence against Palestinians more than a decade ago, as well as several settlers who US officials have determined have established outposts or illegal settlements on Palestinian land, such as the Sves Farm, which Established by settler Zvi Bar Yosef. Described by the anti-occupation researcher Dror Etkes, as being responsible for “the most brutal settler attacks I have ever heard of.”

However, despite the Biden administration’s tough rhetoric, it plans to impose sanctions on ultra-Orthodox Jews Netzah Yehuda Battalion After a series of alleged violations, including arbitrary killings and torture of Palestinian civilians, it was suspended after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly objected.

Why did the United States impose sanctions on the citizens of its ally?

The sanctions came as the Biden administration faces pressure to use its authority to stop the Israeli war on Gaza, including suspending arms sales.

Unwilling to do so, the administration instead implemented several less severe measures seeking to influence Israel’s actions and signal its discontent, such as sanctions on select settler groups and individuals.

in november, Former State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that both Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken “repeatedly emphasized with their Israeli counterparts that Israel must do more to stop violence against civilians in the West Bank and hold those responsible accountable.”

The Israeli government is controlled by extreme right-wing figures who support settlement, including… Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich And Itamar Ben Gvir, who was Minister of National Security until the end of last week, when he resigned in protest against the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

In November, Ben Gvir responded to the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu by suggesting that Israel annex the West Bank. Earlier in the same month, In anticipation of a Trump presidency. Smotrich went further, ordering preparations to annex the occupied territories this year.

Have sanctions reduced violence?

no.

Until 2024, the period during which US sanctions were imposed Registered by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). This is the highest number of attacks in nearly two decades since OCHA began documenting such incidents, noting that “nearly 4,250 Palestinians were displaced and 1,760 structures destroyed, and approximately 1,400 incidents involving Israeli settlers across the West Bank.” West, including East Jerusalem.

Al Jazeera and human rights groups Including Amnesty International I tracked Many incidents of settler violence against Palestinian homes over the course of the Israeli war on Gaza, and consistently found that settler attacks were either ignored or even instigated by security forces under Ben Gvir’s command.

What is the Israeli response to lifting sanctions?

Both Smotrich and Ben Gvir celebrated Trump’s cancellation of sanctions.

Ben Gvir wrote on social media that he welcomed “the historic decision of the next US President Donald Trump to lift the sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on the settlers of Judea and Samaria,” using the term that refers to the occupied West Bank. Used by the Israeli government.

Finance Minister Smotrich was equally clear, calling the sanctions “dangerous and blatant foreign interference in Israel’s internal affairs.”

I extend my sincere thanks to President Donald Trump for his just decision to lift the sanctions imposed by the Biden administration against settlers and activists in right-wing organizations. These sanctions constituted severe and blatant foreign interference in Israel’s internal affairs and a blatant violation… pic.twitter.com/Lp1I8oFixa

– Bezalel Smotrich (@bezalelsm) January 21, 2025

Is this a sign of what Trump’s policy towards Israel and Palestine will be?

While many in the pro-Palestinian camp have given Trump credit for pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza, he was overwhelmingly pro-Israel in his first term and will likely be the same in the next four years.

Trump has been willing to give the Israeli right several victories in the past even when it went against long-term US policy. For example, he moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem and recognized Israel’s illegal annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights in his first term in office. He also presented an initiative that recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the illegal settlement blocs in the West Bank.

Among the members of his current circle Mike HuckabeeTrump’s evangelical and pro-settlement pick for US ambassador to Israel, as well as billionaire “mega-donor” Miriam Adelson, who is said to support Israeli annexation of the West Bank, suggest that Israeli ambitions in the region may be drawing closer, said H. A. Heller, a senior fellow at the institute. Royal United Services:

The Trump administration also nominated Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik as US ambassador to the United Nations. Stefanik spoke of Israel’s “biblical right” to the West Bank, and described the number of times UN votes have gone against Israel as evidence of the “rot of anti-Semitism” in the organization.

“Many of Trump’s picks, such as Pete Hegseth for Pentagon, or his new national security adviser, Mike Waltz, suggest that we are seeing a complete abandonment of the very limited and restrictive constraints on Israel’s behavior that have been in place,” Heller said.