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MEET THE SETTLERS TARGETED BY BIDEN’S SANCTIONS — AND THEIR
VICTIMS  
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Oren Ziv
February 8, 2024
972 Magazine
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_ Palestinians and Israelis who’ve experienced the settlers’
attacks first-hand see the move as a positive but wholly insufficient
step toward accountability. _

Einan Tanjil (left) and another settler attack Palestinian farmers
and Israeli activists in Surif, occupied West Bank, Nov. 12, 2021,
Shay Kendler

 

After years of toothless verbal condemnation of Israeli settler
violence by successive U.S. governments, the Biden administration took
the historic step last week of imposing sanctions against four
settlers involved in recent attacks in the occupied West Bank.
The executive order
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freezing the settlers’ assets in the United States and banning their
entry into the country. Israeli banks have also frozen the accounts
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two of the settlers on the list in compliance with the U.S. sanctions.

Settler violence has been on the rise for years, with perpetrators
very often supported in the act
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Israeli soldiers and enjoying near-total impunity
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Israeli justice system. The inauguration of the most far-right
government
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Israel’s history just over a year ago — with a man once arrested
on suspicion of planning an attack becoming overlord of the West Bank
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a man once convicted of support for terrorism becoming national
security minister
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emboldened violent settlers: 2023 saw a sharp escalation
in large-scale pogroms
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in Huwara
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ash-Sharqiya
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and many other locations
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These attacks are succeeding in their state-sanctioned goal
of cleansing vast regions
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the West Bank of their Palestinian inhabitants to enable the further
expansion of Jewish settlements. And the situation has deteriorated
even further under the shadow of war, with settlers forcibly
displacing
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least 16 entire Palestinian villages since October 7.

To try to assess the significance of Biden’s decision, +972 Magazine
and Local Call spoke with Palestinians and Israelis who have been
directly impacted by the violence of the targeted settlers — David
Chai Chasdai, Shalom Zicherman, Einan Tanjil, and Yinon Levi — and
their comrades in arms. Most welcomed the executive order but wondered
whether it would have any effect on the ground; whether it would deter
other settlers; whether sanctions would be extended to other settlers
involved in the violence; and whether such sanctions would ultimately
reach the leadership of the settlement movement, including those
sitting in government.

‘These are organized groups that come to kill’

David Chai Chasdai was arrested for leading one of the worst instances
of settler violence in recent memory: the pogrom
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Palestinian town of Huwara in February 2023, during which hundreds of
settlers set fire to dozens of homes and hundreds of vehicles,
wounding over 100 residents in the process. Sameh Aqtash, from the
nearby village of Za’atara, was shot and killed during the attack.

[Israeli settlers burn Palestinian homes, vehicles, and businesses
during a rampage in the West Bank town of Huwara, Feb. 26, 2023.
(Activestills)]
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Israeli settlers burn Palestinian homes, vehicles, and businesses
during a rampage in the West Bank town of Huwara, Feb. 26, 2023.
(Activestills)
Israeli settlers burn Palestinian homes, vehicles, and businesses
during a rampage in the West Bank town of Huwara, Feb. 26, 2023.
(Activestills)

Chasdai, who lives in the settlement of Beit El, is a familiar figure
in the world of the “hilltop youth” — the generic term given to
young Israeli settlers who routinely descend from illegal West Bank
outposts to attack Palestinians. In 2014, then a teenager, he was
described in the settler news outlet Makor Rishon as “the number one
target of the Nationalist Crimes Division in the Judea and Samaria
[police] district and one of the names that causes the greatest
headaches for members of the Jewish Unit of the Shin Bet.” 

In 2015, Chasdai was convicted of intent to unlawfully use hazardous
materials after bottles filled with gasoline and other flammable
substances were found in his car. Two years later, he was convicted of
aggravated assault for attacking a Palestinian taxi driver with tear
gas. In 2021, he was convicted of threatening a police officer.

Chasdai was one of only 18 settlers arrested after the Huwara pogrom
(only one of whom was charged). He was soon released but then
re-arrested and placed into three months of administrative detention
— a tool Israel uses almost exclusively against Palestinians to
detain whomever it wants without charge or trial. 50 Knesset members
signed a call for his release.

“It’s a symbolic measure,” a resident of Huwara from the Awwad
family, who asked that his first name not be published for fear of
settler reprisal, told +972. “America says, ‘We also watch
what’s going on in the [occupied] territories. It helps a little
that the Israeli government knows that the Palestinians have good
relations with the U.S. and are giving them material about what the
settlers are doing.”

Awwad believes that although the sanctions are a good start, they are
not nearly enough to deter settler violence. “It’s not just Huwara
— it’s everywhere in the West Bank,” he said. “Settlers
walking around in military uniforms and with weapons. These are not
people who just shoot and run. These are organized groups that come to
kill, and America should declare them terrorist organizations. They
are part of the right [wing], and the right wing is responsible for
them: it gives them orders, gives them lawyers and money, and supports
their criminal behavior.”

[Palestinian residents of Huwara walk among their burned homes, cars,
and businesses the morning after Israeli settlers rampaged through
their town in the West Bank, Feb. 27, 2023. (Oren Ziv)]
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Palestinian residents of Huwara walk among their burned homes, cars,
and businesses the morning after Israeli settlers rampaged through
their town in the West Bank, Feb. 27, 2023. (Oren Ziv)
Palestinian residents of Huwara walk among their burned homes, cars,
and businesses the morning after Israeli settlers rampaged through
their town in the West Bank, Feb. 27, 2023. (Oren Ziv)

Awwad also questions the effectiveness of this initial package of
sanctions, as these settlers likely do not regularly — if ever —
travel to the United States, and they almost certainly do not have
American bank accounts. “We need the sanctions to be here,” he
says. “The ones who need to act against the settlers are the
government and the law enforcement authorities in Israel. Only if this
happens will they begin to be afraid. 

“The problem is that the government here doesn’t want to act
against them,” Awwad continued. “The settlers are part of the
government, so the government doesn’t want to deal with them because
they’re afraid that the coalition will fall.”

Chasdai himself responded
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freezing of his bank accounts, telling Israel’s public broadcaster
Kan that it was a “national disgrace,” all the more so because it
took place under a right-wing government. “Throughout the
generations we have seen many oppressors who have harmed the people of
Israel,” Chasdai said. “We will also get through the persecution
of Biden and his collaborators.”

‘It’s convenient to blame the small fish’

Another settler on Biden’s list is Shalom Zicherman, a resident of
the Mitzpe Yair outpost. In June 2022, he threw stones through the
window of a car belonging to left-wing Israeli activists. I was
present at the scene and documented the attack
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after which Zicherman was able to return to the outpost, despite the
fact that the army’s Judea Area Brigade Commander Col. Yehuda
Rosilio saw the attack and did nothing to stop or detain him. The IDF
Spokesperson initially described the incident as “friction between
settlers and protesters,” but Zicherman was later indicted
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and his trial is ongoing.

The U.S. State Department notes
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“according to video evidence, [Zicherman] assaulted Israeli
activists and their vehicles in the West Bank, blocking them on the
street, and attempted to break the windows of passing vehicles with
activists inside. Zicherman cornered at least two of the activists and
injured both.” 

[An Israeli settler throws a stone at the window of a car containing
three left-wing Israeli activists, as another settler blocks their
exit, outside the Mitzpe Yair outpost, occupied West Bank, June 10,
2022. (Oren Ziv)]
[[link removed]] Israeli
settler Shalom Zicherman throws a stone at the window of a car
containing three left-wing Israeli activists, as another settler
blocks their exit, outside the Mitzpe Yair outpost, occupied West
Bank, June 10, 2022. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli settler Shalom Zicherman throws a stone at the window of a car
containing three left-wing Israeli activists, as another settler
blocks their exit, outside the Mitzpe Yair outpost, occupied West
Bank, June 10, 2022. (Oren Ziv)

According to the order, Zicherman and another settler “directly or
indirectly engaged or attempted to engage in planning, ordering,
otherwise directing, or participating in efforts to place civilians in
reasonable fear of violence with the purpose or effect of
necessitating a change of residence to avoid such violence, affecting
the West Bank.”

Yasmin Eran Vardi, a left-wing activist who spends most of her time in
the West Bank doing “protect presence
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solidarity work — whereby Israeli and international activists put
their bodies in between Palestinians on the one hand and settlers and
soldiers on the other — was wounded in the attack. “I’m in favor
of sanctions being imposed, but these sanctions don’t mean a lot,”
she told +972. “It’s clear that these four [settlers] did bad
things, but there is a whole policy here that allows them to do
whatever they want, under the auspices of the army and the government,
all with American funding.”

Like Awwad, Eran Vardi wondered whether these sanctions would
effectively deter other settlers, or whether they would even deter the
four who were themselves sanctioned. “The question is whether
anything will change, even a little,” she said.

Eran Vardi wants to see more significant sanctions, but she has no
expectation that the U.S. will impose them. “These sanctions
demonstrate Biden’s full cooperation with Israel’s needs,” she
said. “It’s convenient to blame the small fish, especially because
[the settlers] hurt Israeli citizens. Biden could stop funding the
killing in Gaza if he wanted to.”

‘Why focus specifically on those who harmed Israelis?’

Einan Tanjil, a third settler named in Biden’s executive order, was
documented in November 2021 attacking Palestinian farmers and Israeli
activists who came to harvest olives in the village of Surif. The
order states that Tanjil “was involved in assaulting Palestinian
farmers and Israeli activists by attacking them with stones and clubs,
resulting in wounds that required medical treatment.” 

[Israeli settlers assaulting Palestinian residents and solidarity
activists during an attack on an olive harvest in the town of Surif,
South Hebron Hills, occupied West Bank, Nov. 12, 2021. (Shay Kendler)]
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Israeli settlers assaulting Palestinian residents and solidarity
activists during an attack on an olive harvest in the town of Surif,
South Hebron Hills, occupied West Bank, Nov. 12, 2021. (Shay Kendler)
Israeli settlers assaulting Palestinian residents and solidarity
activists during an attack on an olive harvest in the town of Surif,
South Hebron Hills, occupied West Bank, Nov. 12, 2021. (Shay Kendler)

+972 and Local Call reported at the time
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settlers descended from nearby outposts and, using stones and clubs,
wounded at least three Israeli activists who subsequently needed
medical treatment, including the veteran activist Rabbi Arik Asherman.
Tanjil was charged with assault and causing bodily harm.

Netta Ben Porat, an Israeli human rights activist, was wounded during
the incident. “There were eight of us Israelis,” she recounted.
“Einan and his friend attacked us with clubs, and another activist
stood between me and them, and then he beat me. 

“He was only charged with assault, not even aggravated assault or
politically-driven assault [which would carry a more severe
punishment],” Ben Porat continued. “They omitted that he attacked
more people. The indictment does not clarify why he attacked us. He
claimed self-defense, even though I was standing to the side and
filming while he hit me.”

To Ben Porat, the sanctions appear “ridiculous.” “Out of all
[the settlers], the one the U.S. imposes sanctions on is a 19-year-old
who attacked Israelis once or twice? It’s irrelevant,” she said.
“They could have tried a little harder — what about the military
security coordinator who was armed and who brought the settlers [to
where we were] and watched from above [as they attacked us]? Or the
farmers responsible for expelling entire communities? If the problem
is settler violence and its impact on Palestinians, then why focus
specifically on those who harmed Israelis?

“Maybe this is a harbinger of things to come,” she continued. “I
hope this is a first step, that sanctions will be imposed on [Bezalel]
Smotrich and [prominent settler leader] Yossi Dagan
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‘We hope this will help us return to our lands’

The final settler targeted by the sanctions is Yinon Levi, who helped
found the Meitarim Farm outpost. According to Kerem Navot, an NGO that
tracks the dispossession of Palestinian land, Levi owns an earthworks
company that has been hired by state authorities to carry out
demolition orders in Palestinian villages in the West Bank. 

Last November, violence emanating from Meitarim Farm led to the
expulsion of the Palestinian community of Khirbet Zanuta
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27 families, totalling around 250 people — from their homes near the
Meitar checkpoint in the southern West Bank. At the beginning of the
war, Levi’s company also blocked roads leading to the entrance of
the Palestinian village of Susiya — an apparent attempt
to intimidate the village residents
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[Palestinian residents of Khirbet Zanuta pack their belongings and
house materials as they flee their homes following a spike in Israeli
settler violence during the Gaza war, West Bank, November 1, 2023.
(Oren Ziv)]
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Palestinian residents of Khirbet Zanuta pack their belongings and
house materials as they flee their homes following a spike in Israeli
settler violence during the Gaza war, West Bank, November 1, 2023.
(Oren Ziv)
Palestinian residents of Khirbet Zanuta pack their belongings and
house materials as they flee their homes following a spike in Israeli
settler violence during the Gaza war, West Bank, November 1, 2023.
(Oren Ziv)

A petition filed on behalf of the Palestinians expelled from Zanuta
states that Levi headed a group of settlers who, accompanied by two
soldiers, came to the village on Oct. 12, beat village residents,
threatened to kill them, smashed solar panels, and destroyed a car.
According to the petition, Levi drove a bulldozer and “began
extensive and massive demolitions of buildings, infrastructure, olive
trees, and other agricultural crops belonging to the villagers.”

Levi differs slightly from the other three settlers on the American
list in that he is not merely a hilltop youth activist, but rather the
leader of a settler farm. In recent years, dozens of such farms have
been established in the West Bank, and they are at the heart of the
effort to expel Palestinians from their land. Although most of them
were not established legally, they receive government support and
protection from the military.

“I didn’t believe this would happen,” Fayez al-Tal, the leader
of Khirbet Zanuta, told +972 in response to the announcement of
sanctions against Levi. “We read the decision and were overjoyed.
Yinon Levi is in charge of the outpost: he is one of the people who
came at the beginning of the war and threatened us. We hope this will
help us in our lawsuit requesting to return to our lands, and we hope
that the court will see that the Americans are imposing sanctions. But
Israel is not doing anything.”

According to al-Tal, it is important to remember the broader context
of settler violence: “The settlers don’t do it alone. They serve
the government, and the police do nothing when they attack us. They
know that no law applies to them. They are not afraid of anything. The
Americans can’t say a word about Gaza, because Hamas is there —
but there is no Hamas here, so they can ask why there are violent
attacks by settlers.”

_Oren Ziv [[link removed]] is a
photojournalist, reporter for Local Call, and a founding member of the
Activestills photography collective._

_+972 Magazine [[link removed]] is an independent, online,
nonprofit magazine run by a group of Palestinian and Israeli
journalists. Founded in 2010, our mission is to provide in-depth
reporting, analysis, and opinions from the ground in Israel-Palestine.
The name of the site is derived from the telephone country code that
can be used to dial throughout Israel-Palestine._

_Our core values are a commitment to equity, justice, and freedom of
information. We believe in accurate and fair journalism that
spotlights the people and communities working to oppose occupation and
apartheid, and that showcases perspectives often overlooked or
marginalized in mainstream narratives._

_Published in partnership with Local Call._

* Israel
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* West Bank
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* settlers
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