Expanding Middle East Crisis: Israelis and Palestinians See Different Problems with Sanctions on Settlers
The United States financial sanctions imposed Thursday against four Israelis accused of escalating violence against civilians, intimidating civilians or destroying property in the West Bank.
“The United States has consistently opposed actions that undermine stability in the West Bank and the prospects for peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians,” the US State Department said in a statement.
Here's what we know about the four, all men aged 21 to 32.
David Chai Chasdai, 29
Mr Chasdai initiated and led a riot in the Palestinian town of Huwara, the Foreign Ministry said a statementwhich resulted in the death of a Palestinian civilian. The New York Times reports this on a rampage in Huwara and neighboring villages on February 26, 2023, which began after two settlers were shot and killed. Israeli settlers burned and destroyed homes, businesses and vehicles, and one Palestinian was killed.
Yoav Gallant, Israeli Defense Minister, initial signed an administrative detention order against Mr. Chasdai in March 2023, according to Israeli news media — a policy of indefinite detention without trial that Israel uses almost exclusively against Palestinians. An Israeli court follows a few days later shortened his detention by one month.
According to an Israeli legal database, Mr. Chasdai was arrested in 2013 for assaulting a taxi driver. He was represented in the Jerusalem District Court by Itamar Ben Gvir, a lawyer and politician who is now Israel's Minister of National Security. The court decided not to extend Mr Chasdai's detention, as requested by a police station charged with investigating nationalistically motivated crimes, due to a lack of evidence.
Yinon Levi, 31
Mr. Levi led a group of settlers who were “involved in actions that created an atmosphere of fear in the West Bank,” the State Department statement said, and has joined other settlers in repeatedly attacking Palestinian communities the West Bank.
The State Department said he came from Meitarim Farm, an illegal Israeli settlement in the Southwest Bank.
“He regularly led groups of settlers from the Meitarim Farm outpost who attacked Palestinian and Bedouin civilians, threatened them with additional violence if they did not leave their homes, burned their fields and destroyed their property,” the statement said.
Einan Tanjil21
Mr. Tanjil was described by the State Department as involved in “attacking Palestinian farmers and Israeli activists by attacking them with stones and clubs, resulting in injuries requiring medical treatment.”
He was accused in 2021 of attacking an Israeli activist, Neta Ben Porat, a high-tech sector worker and mother of three, according to a Facebook post by Mehazkim, an Israeli center-left political page.
The post said that Mr. Tanjil was accused of hitting her on the head and legs with a club as she and other Israeli pro-Palestinian rights activists helped Palestinian farmers harvest olives near Surif, a Palestinian town on the West Bank.
Shalom Zicherman32
Mr. Zicherman attacked Israeli activists and their vehicles in the West Bank, the State Department said, citing video evidence. He cornered at least two of the activists and injured them both, the statement said.
Mr Zicherman threw stones at the vehicle of Israeli left-wing activists outside the Palestinian area of Masfar Yata, wounding one of them and breaking the car's window, according to a video filmed by an activist.