Israel's settlers see sanctions relief if Trump wins US election

Israel’s settlers are watching the US presidential election closely, a leader of the community has said, expressing confidence that if Donald Trump wins he will lift what they see as illegitimate sanctions imposed on some of them for attacks on Palestinians, Reuters has reported.

As much of the world’s attention has focused on the war in Gaza, growing violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank and land grabs in the occupied territory have raised concern among some of Israel’s Western allies.

Washington and others have imposed asset freezes and banking restrictions on violent settlers, outposts and groups and urged Israel to do more to stop attacks that they say undermine efforts to end the conflict.

Israel Ganz, chairman of the main Yesha Settler Council who has close ties with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, described the sanctions as interference in Israel’s legal system that would ultimately cause problems for the government.

“If Trump takes the election, there will be no sanctions,” he told Reuters. “If Trump loses the election, we will in the state of Israel… have a problem with sanctions that the government over here has to deal with.”

Asked about the sanctions, a spokesperson for Netanyahu’s office declined to comment, while senior Trump campaign advisor Brian Hughes said, “Only President Trump will restore peace and stability in the Middle East for all people.”

Most countries deem Jewish settlements built on land Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war to be illegal under international law and say that their expansion blocks the only path to lasting peace, a viable Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel. In 2019, the then-Trump administration abandoned the long-held US position that the settlements are illegal before it was restored by President Joe Biden.

In July this year, the International Court of Justice reiterated that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967 is “unlawful” and should be brought to an “as rapidly as possible.”

Ganz claimed that the sanctions on settlers are unfair, because they are not matched by those on violent Palestinians, although Washington has tightened long-standing sanctions on Palestinian factions since the 7 October Hamas-led cross-border incursion.

“The sanctions hurt families and farms,” said Ganz, referring to agricultural settlement communities in the occupied West Bank. Palestinians say that such communities have already taken the best land from them and are set on taking more.

Twenty Palestinians have been killed this year alone in attacks by settlers, according to a Palestinian Authority-affiliated organisation, among at least 763 Palestinians killed in the West Bank since October last year as Israel conducts raids against those who resist the occupation.

Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has said that extremist settlers should be held accountable for violent acts while also emphasising that Israel has a right to defend itself against attacks. Her campaign team did not respond to a request for comment on Ganz’s statements. Under international law, an occupying power has no legitimate claim of “self-defence” against the people living under its occupation.

The Yesha Council headed by Ganz has overall responsibility for more than 500,000 Israeli Jews living in settlements, just over five per cent of Israel’s population. That number has jumped from around 374,000 in 2013, Yesha data shows. Many settlers believe that Jews have a God-given right to live in territory that they call Judea and Samaria.

Some in Israel’s ruling coalition, the most far-right in its history, support the expansion of settlements and ultimately the annexation of the majority Palestinian territory.

Britain said earlier this month that it was considering sanctions on Israel’s most influential, far-right public figures, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, after they reportedly said that violent settlers were heroes and that the starvation of Palestinians might be justified. Smotrich has claimed that the comments were taken out of context.

Ganz insists that countries have no right to meddle in Israel’s democracy. “When you sanction ministers, you mean you change the election [results] here. You change what the people here want.”

READ: Israel’s Ben-Gvir describes Smotrich as arrogant