Biden Administration Issues Executive Order on West Bank Instability

On Feb. 1, the Biden administration issued an executive order allowing the U.S. to implement new measures to address destabilizing actions in the West Bank—in particular, settler violence. The executive order assesses that the extremist settler violence, forced displacements, and property destruction has reached “intolerable levels” and have the potential to undermine Israel’s security and lead to broader regional destabilization across the Middle East, thus creating “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”

The executive order allows the Treasury Department and the State Department to issue financial and/or immigration-related sanctions against individuals who commit settler violence in the West Bank, among other measures. According to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, an initial set of designations under this executive order will be released by the State Department later today. 

The executive order is issued pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the National Emergencies Act, section 212(f) and section 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, and 3 U.S. Code § 301.

You can read the executive order here or below. Find also President Biden’s notification of the executive order to Congress.