President Biden imposed financial sanctions on Thursday against four Israelis accused of escalating violence against civilians, intimidating civilians or destroying property in the West Bank.
In a statement, the State Department said, “The United States has consistently opposed actions that undermine stability in the West Bank and the prospects of peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
Here’s what we know about the four men, who range in age from 21 to 32.
David Chai Chasdai, 29
Mr. Chasdai led a riot on the Palestinian town of Huwara, the State Department said, which resulted in the death of a Palestinian civilian. The New York Times reported on a rampage in Huwara and neighboring villages on Feb. 26, 2023, that started after two settlers were shot and killed. Israeli settlers burned and vandalized homes, businesses and vehicles, and one Palestinian was killed.
Reached by phone on Friday, Mr. Chasdai’s mother, Dafna Chasdai, dismissed the impact of the sanctions, saying that the family does not have relatives in the United States and that the “whole thing is a joke.”
After the Huwara violence, Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, signed an administrative detention warrant — a policy of indefinite imprisonment without trial that Israel almost exclusively uses against Palestinians — for Mr. Chasdai, according to the Israeli news media. A few days later, a court shortened his detention by a month.
He was sentenced to six months in jail in 2016 for planning to carry out an attack, when he and another person were found outside Beit Iksa, a Palestinian village, with fuel bottles and a club.
In 2013, Mr. Chasdai was detained for assaulting a taxi driver, according to an Israeli legal database. He was represented in court by Itamar Ben-Gvir, a lawyer and politician who now serves as Israel’s minister of national security. The court decided not to extend Mr. Chasdai’s detention, as requested by the police, citing a lack of evidence.
Yinon Levi, 31
The State Department said that Mr. Levi was from Meitarim Farm, an illegal Israeli settlement in the southern West Bank, and that he had led settler groups “that assaulted Palestinian and Bedouin civilians, threatened them with additional violence if they did not leave their homes, burned their fields and destroyed their property.”
The Israeli Supreme Court is hearing a case brought by Palestinians living near Hebron that alleges that on Oct. 16, Mr. Levi, accompanied by Israeli soldiers, entered the Palestinian village of Susiya on a tractor and participated in the destruction of olive trees, crops and water wells, prompting residents to flee the village.
The petitioners say the demolitions were unauthorized, and they filed the suit asking for immediate steps to halt evictions of Palestinians. The Supreme Court has ordered Israel’s military and police to respond by Monday with information on the investigative actions it has taken to stop such evictions and to provide details on steps taken against suspects, including Mr. Levi.
Mr. Levi’s wife, Sapir Levi, declined to comment on Friday.
Einan Tanjil, 21
Mr. Tanjil was described by the State Department as being involved with “assaulting Palestinian farmers and Israeli activists by attacking them with stones and clubs, resulting in injuries that required medical treatment.” He could not immediately be reached for comment.
He was charged in 2021 with assaulting an Israeli activist, Neta Ben Porat, a high-tech sector worker and mother of three, according to a Facebook post by Mehazkim, an Israeli center-left political page.
The post said that Mr. Tanjil had been charged with hitting her in the head and legs with a club when she and other Israeli activists were helping Palestinian farmers harvest olives near Surif, a Palestinian town in the West Bank.
Shalom Zicherman, 32
Mr. Zicherman assaulted Israeli activists and their vehicles in the West Bank, the State Department said, citing video evidence. He cornered at least two of the activists and injured them both, the statement added.
Mr. Zicherman threw stones at the vehicle of Israeli left-wing activists outside the Palestinian area of Masfar Yata, wounding one of them and breaking the car’s window, according to a video filmed by an activist.
A lawyer for Mr. Zicherman said he would not comment on the sanctions.
