J Street today welcomes the Biden Administration’s decision to sanction the extremist Amana settler organization, as well as three individual Israeli settlers, an Amana subsidiary and a settler construction enterprise. The move comes following the release of a J Street-backed letter signed by 88 Members of the House and Senate calling on the administration to sanction Amana and other settlement organizations – as well as extremist Netanyahu ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich – under an executive order President Biden issued earlier this year.
“J Street has been pressing for President Biden to take this step, and we welcome the immediate impact it will have on the group’s operations. Amana is a key part of the settlement movement’s efforts to push Palestinian families from their land and claim it for Israel. Their mission is antithetical to the values of democracy, justice and peace enshrined in Israel’s Declaration of Independence and shared by the majority of Jewish and pro-Israel Americans,” J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami said.
“President Biden should double down and extend these sanctions to others who are fueling violence and shielding perpetrators from accountability, including Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. If we truly want to deter violence and give force to our words about Palestinian rights, we cannot shy away from accountability at the top,” Ben-Ami said.
Applying sanctions to Amana – as well as the Regavim organization and ministers Ben-Gvir and Smotrich – has been a key plank in a raft of measures J Street has urged President Biden to take before he leaves office in order to blunt the impact of the Trump-Netanyahu agenda. A J Street election survey of Jewish voters – the largest undertaken this year – found that a two-thirds supermajority support sanctions against the two extremist ministers.
As the administration has noted, Amana is a key part of the settlement movement with ties to those previously sanctioned by the US and its allies. The organization strategically uses farming outposts – which it supports through financing and building infrastructure – to expand settlements and seize Palestinian land in violation of both Israeli and international law. Amana has been involved in establishing the majority of West Bank settlements.
The three individuals sanctioned are involved in activities supporting settlement expansion, according to the administration, with one implicated in acts of violence and intimidation, including attacks on homes and a school.
As ministers, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich have been at the forefront of intensifying violence and instability in the West Bank in the shadow of the Gaza war and of the push to annex the West Bank to Israel – an effort to which the incoming Trump Administration has signaled it might back.
Ben-Gvir, who leads the ultranationalist Jewish Power Party, has been described by both Israel’s former Defense Minister and the current leader of the Shin Bet security service as a threat to Israel’s security. Shin Bet leader Ronen Bar said Ben-Gvir was doing “indescribable damage” to Israel’s reputation and West Bank security.
Smotrich – who’s also responsible for several West Bank authorities – just last week drew criticism for saying that once Trump enters office, “the time has come” to annex Palestinian land. This year, Smotrich was caught on tape telling far-right activists that he was using his position to “establish facts on the ground” to make the West Bank “an integral part of the State of Israel.”
Israeli settlers and soldiers have killed more than 600 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, 2023 – including more than 140 children – according to UN figures. Over 6,000 Palestinians have been forced from their homes by demolitions, settler violence and access restrictions in the same period.
J Street continues to support sanctions against all actors and individuals fueling instability on the West Bank, regardless of national origin, and has welcomed President Biden’s sanctions against Israeli and Palestinian extremists alike.
Resources: