Senate Committee Chairs Call for Sanctioning Israeli Group for West Bank Violence

Three Senate committee chairs urged the Biden administration last week to sanction the Amana organization, an Israeli settlement group in the West Bank, for fomenting violence against Palestinian civilians.

In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Foreign Relations Chair Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., Armed Services Chair Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Intelligence Chair Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said they welcome the West Bank sanctions the administration has announced against several entities and people under a Feb. 1 executive order but believe more designations are needed. They accused Amana of playing a central role in forming and sustaining illegal settlements, whose residents have committed theft, arson, intimidation and violence, including killings, against Palestinians.

Such “attacks threaten not only to destabilize an already volatile West Bank, they also imperil hopes for a negotiated two-state outcome and run the risk of expanding the current conflict in Gaza throughout the region,” the senators wrote.

The State and Treasury departments had no immediate comment on the letter.

The senators described their letter as a follow-up to their May correspondence calling for the administration to continue enforcing the executive order (see 2405170030).

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., recently criticized the administration's use of sanctions against Israelis, saying the practice undercuts an ally and emboldens Israel's enemies. He also said the Israeli judicial system is capable of prosecuting crimes committed within its borders (see 2408300051).