US Secretary of State Antony Blinken notified Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during meetings yesterday that the Biden administration is preparing to announce a series of visa bans against Israeli settlers involved in attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel. A US official confirmed the plan to AFP.
The announcement will likely only include the number of settlers being banned from the US, rather than their names, the Israeli official says, explaining that the US hopes that the anonymity will serve as a deterrent against those considering targeting Palestinians who won’t know whether they’ve been black-listed or not.
The visa ban could be imposed as early as next week, the Israeli official says.
I’m ignorant on this topic.
What sort of lives do these “settlers” live? Do they have the resources to travel internationally? How many settlers are actually applying for visas?
This is a good policy. But how many people does it really affect? This isn’t going to stop people from causing violence in Palestinian areas, it’s just going to keep a handful of violent Israelis out of the USA. Keeping violent people out is great and all, but this has to be symbolic at best, right?
Edit: it sounds like from the article this will only affect about a hundred people involved in specific recent events, not set up some sort of system of banning settlers for their actions.
I hope it’s the bed rock to expand further
“After X date all settlers located below X latitude will be sanctioned” with the criteria expanding every month. But j know that’s wishful thinking