The Biden administration is planning to issue visa bans on an undisclosed number of Israeli settlers committing violence in the West Bank, US Media reports.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and members of his war cabinet that the United States would take action against the settlers on its own, according to the report.
Israeli settler behaviour in the West Bank more than doubled after the October 7 Hamas attacks, but 2023 was already on track for a record number of violence.
Settlements are Israeli properties built on occupied Palestinian lands, primarily based in the West Bank or East Jerusalem. The vast majority of settlements are built on land either wholly or partially privately owned by Palestinians and are illegal under international law and under the Oslo Accords signed by the Israeli government.
Still, in 2017, the Israeli government announced that it formally started authorizing new settlements. Since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the settlement population in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has increased from a quarter million to nearly 700,000 by September of this year.
From the start of this year to October 1, at least 750 Palestinian buildings, homes and businesses, had been demolished to make room for more Israeli settlements and outposts.
Outposts are settlements not officially sanctioned by the Israeli government, though many have been retroactively authorized.
Multiple incidents, including in February and June, resulted in dozens of Palestinian homes and cars being set on fire by Israeli settlers in the West Bank city of Nablus and the town of Turmus.
The result is a patchwork of Israeli settlements within the West Bank, one of the areas that are seeking Palestinian statehood, a situation that experts have said makes it more difficult to implement a two-state solution peace plan, a policy officially supported by the US government.
In an op-ed credited to US President Joe Biden published by US media last month, Biden threatened to take action against Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
“I have been emphatic with Israel’s leaders that extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must stop and that those committing the violence must be held accountable. The United States is prepared to take our own steps, including issuing visa bans against extremists attacking civilians in the West Bank,” Biden wrote.
A State Department official told US media under the condition of anonymity that Washington requested that Israel prosecute the perpetrators but has yet to see movement towards that. The official said the bans could come in the next few weeks.
White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters that he could not confirm the reports, but said it was under consideration.
“I am not able to confirm that reporting - I'd refer you to the State Department,” Kirby said during a press briefing. “The only thing I would add... it's something that we are looking at.”