Washington considers entry ban on violent Jewish settlers who attack Palestinians in West Bank

The U.S. government reportedly seeks to ban Jewish extremists who attack Palestinians living in the West Bank from entering the United States.

U.S. President Joe Biden stressed the need to combat this phenomenon in a recent opinion piece published in The Washington Post on Saturday.

“I have been emphatic with Israeli leaders that extremist violence against Palestinians in the West Bank must stop and that those committing the violence must be held accountable,” Biden wrote.

“The United States is prepared to take our own steps, including issuing visa bans against extremists attacking civilians in the West Bank,” the president added.  

Extremist Jewish settlers have reportedly killed eight Palestinians in the West Bank, including one child according to the United Nations. In addition, some 74 local Palestinian residents were reportedly injured in extremist settler violence. Live ammunition has reportedly caused around one third of the injuries.

Judea and Samaria, internationally known as the “West Bank” is the historical cradle of the Jewish nation.

Some three million Arabs and half a million Jews reside in Judea and Samaria, known as the West Bank. This area constituted the heartland of biblical Israel with important cities like Hebren, Shechem (Nablus) and Shilo.

Radical Jewish settlers have also increasingly clashed with Israeli forces deployed to protect the local Jewish population against Palestinian terrorism.

In February, following the murder of two Israelis, hundreds of radicalized Jewish settlers burned several Palestinian homes and cars in the West Bank village of Huwara in retaliation. Israeli and international leaders quickly condemned the unprecedented attack.

At the time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack and stressed that Israel would not tolerate anarchy and attacks on innocent civilians.

“With all the fervor and the passion, there is no place for anarchy, we will not accept anarchy,” the prime minister emphasized.

“We will not accept a reality where people … set homes on fire, burn cars, intentionally harm innocent people. This is exactly what our enemies want to see: a loss of control and a never-ending cycle of blood, fire and smoke,” Netanyahu stressed.

However, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich caused controversy by calling for the “erasure” of Huwara after it became a hotbed of anti-Israel extremism. While Smotrich later retracted his controversial statement, the U.S. and other countries condemned him for those remarks.

“Just as we condemn Palestinian incitement to violence, we condemn these provocative remarks that also amount to incitement to violence. We call on Prime Minister Netanyahu and other senior officials to publicly and clearly reject and disavow these comments,” U.S. State Department Spokesperson Ned Price stated.

While the Biden administration backs Israel’s right to self-defense against the Hamas invasion and attack on Oct. 7, Biden has reiterated the need for a longer-term solution.

“In the months ahead, the United States will redouble our efforts to establish a more peaceful, integrated, and prosperous Middle East – a region where a day like Oct. 7 is unthinkable,“ Biden wrote in his recent Washington Post op-ed piece.