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Eitan Elhadez-Barak/TPS-IL on 20 January, 2025
Israelis Praise Trump Reversal of Biden Sanctions and Funding for UNRWA
Jerusalem, 21 January, 2025 (TPS-IL) -- Israeli leaders praised President Donald Trump for signing an executive order on Monday reversing sanctions on residents of Judea and Samaria accused of violence against Palestinians.
Other orders called for the re-evaluation of US foreign aid, cutting off funds to the embattled United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), and re-imposing sanctions on officials of the International Criminal Court.
But the order reversing sanctions on Judea and Samaria residents accused of violence drew immediate appreciation.
“These sanctions were a serious act of gross foreign intervention in Israel’s internal affairs,” said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Executive orders signed by former President Joe Biden placed individuals such as Reut Ben Chaim, Shlomo Sarid, Benzi Gopstein on the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s specially designated nationals and blocked persons list. The sanctions freeze assets in the US owned by that individual, and prohibit US citizens from providing them with funds, goods or services.
Ben Chaim and Sarid founded Tzav 9, which protests humanitarian aid to Gaza while Hamas holds hostages. Gopstein founded Lehava, which opposes intermarriage between Jews and Arabs. Those organizations, which are approved nonprofits in Israel, were also sanctioned.
“This rights a great wrong that was perpetuated in recent years under a biased US policy carried out by the US administration and also on the part of some locals who were confused between those we love and our enemies,” said MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the Otzma Yehudit which Lehava is affiliated with.
Trump also renewed sanctions against members of the International Criminal Court in The Hague who probe US troops. That comes on the heels of a US House of Representatives approving legislation court officials and their supporters seeking to “investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute a protected person,” referring to US government officials and soldiers, as well as allies such as Israel who have not consented to the court’s jurisdiction.
Meanwhile Israeli lawmaker Yulia Malinovsky praised Trump’s order to cut funds to UNRWA.
“Trump in one day stopped funding for UNRWA and because of the objections of our Prime Minister and his government, it took me nine months to pass the law to disband and eliminate this terrorist agency, and let no one doubt that they are still trying to illegally humanize UNRWA,” the Knesset member tweeted on Tuesday morning.
With an Israeli ban on UNRWA due to begin in two weeks, a key Knesset lawmaker on Sunday called the blacklist, “the first domino in the collapse of Palestinian terrorism.”
A summary of a confidential discussion of legislation by the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee quoted committee chairman Yuli Edelstein saying, “Removing UNRWA from the equation will finally provide an opportunity to stop the perpetuation of terrorism and begin a de-radicalization process in UNRWA’s centers of activity. This is the first domino in the collapse of Palestinian terrorism and a bright spot of hope for a better future.”
In October, the Knesset passed legislation stripping UNRWA of its diplomatic immunity, barring Israeli officials from cooperating with the agency, and prohibiting it from operating in Israeli sovereign territory. Israel withdrew its diplomatic recognition of UNRWA one month later. Without work permits for foreign staff or coordination of passage at checkpoints, the agency will not be able to function. Even in Gaza, UNWA coordinates heavily with the Israeli army.
That legislation takes effect at the end of January.
