In 2016, the Israeli beverage company Soda Stream was targeted by BDS (the international anti-Israel boycott, divest, and sanctions movement started by Palestinians) and forced to move to Israel. As a result, Soda Stream moved its operations from the “disputed” West Bank (Judea and Samaria) to within Israel proper.
Daniel Birnbaum, CEO of SodaStream International Ltd. said that some 500 Palestinian workers lost their jobs after the move, unable to get permits to work inside Israel at the new factory.
“We had given them the opportunity to work,” he told Israel’s Channel 2 TV, calling Palestinians “the main victims” of BDS.
A recent attempt by the Biden administration, to sanction Israelis seems to be having the same effect – hurting Palestinians and helping Israelis. In December 2023, in the midst of Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, the United States announced that it was imposing sanctions against Israelis.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrote, “Today, the State Department is implementing a new visa restriction policy targeting individuals believed to have been involved in undermining peace, security, or stability in the West Bank, including through committing acts of violence or taking other actions that unduly restrict civilians’ access to essential services and basic necessities.”
And while he added: “We will continue to seek accountability for all acts of violence against civilians in the West Bank, regardless of the perpetrator or the victim,” the US has not sought accountability for acts of violence against Jewish civilians in the West Bank.
American sanctions have only targeted Israelis – with the exception of one defunct Palestinian terror group.
Over 3,200 acts of terror by Palestinians in the West Bank
ACCORDING TO a recent report by Rescuers Without Borders, since January 2024, Palestinians have committed 3,272 acts of terror in the region (including 1,868 cases of rock-throwing, 456 attacks with Molotov cocktails, 299 with explosive charges, and 109 shootings. Palestinian terrorists have killed 14 people and wounded 155 others). And yet, not a single Palestinian has been sanctioned by the US.
Palestinians are the first to notice how pointless the US sanctions are. In an interview with Jacobin Rashid Khalidi, a professor of history at Columbia University and author of the book The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine, said, “It’s a joke, frankly, that anybody should take this terribly seriously. It’ll have an effect, but the ability of sanctioned entities to get around sanctions is legion, it’s the stuff of legend.”
The Biden administration senses, even while pretending otherwise, “that it may lose key constituencies because of its policies on Palestine. It’s purely opportunistic, purely cynical,” he said.
Financial implications
US sanctions against Israelis have had little effect on increasing peace, security, or stability in the region. There is no evidence of their “curbing acts of violence or actions that unduly restrict civilians’ access to essential services and basic necessities.”
Ironically, US sanctions have helped the sanctioned Israelis financially. In June of this year, AP released a report on the sanctions, detailing that money was donated and fundraisers were held, making tens of thousands of dollars for some [of those] sanctioned. And at least one far-Right Israeli government official, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, vowed to intervene on their behalf.
Three of the sanctioned, Yinon Levi, Noam Federman, and Elisha Yered said that the measures against them were, at most, an annoyance.
AP wrote, “When Yinon Levi was sanctioned by the US in February, he said his Israeli bank froze his accounts.” He was left unable to pay his mortgage or his children’s school fees. “But his community raised thousands of dollars for him. Two months later, he was granted access to his money.”
Another sanctioned Israeli, Elisha Yered, said sanctions hadn’t slowed expansion goals. “Only settling the land will bring security. Anyone who thinks this will break us is mistaken. We’ve survived harder things than this.”
The US Department of the Treasury then wrote to the Supervisor of Banks at the Bank of Israel, clarifying that Israeli banks do not have to follow American sanctions against Israelis. The letter stated, “We understand that Israeli banks have questions regarding subsistence payments for persons sanctioned under this authority. Consistent with the Treasury’s approach across multiple sanctions programs, Israeli banks can process transactions for individuals designated under [the sanctions order] provided these transactions do not involve the US financial system or US persons.” This clarification ensured that sanctioned Israelis would not be denied access to their funds.
The majority of moves directed at applying BDS to Israel and Israelis tend to backfire, causing more damage to Palestinians than Israelis. Well-known examples of this are the cases of Soda Stream, Airbnb, and Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, all of which have hurt Palestinians and helped Israelis.
It’s time the US administration ends its fiasco of sanctions against Israeli citizens or its hypocrisy; and instead begins sanctioning Palestinian terrorists.
Should the US decided to end its counterproductive sanctioning of Israelis, it can hope to influence areas of Israeli society, especially in Judea and Samaria, who now reject American peace efforts in the region.
If the administration does decide to sanction Palestinian civilians and terrorists involved in undermining peace, security, and stability in Judea and Samaria it can expect to be overwhelmed by the quantity of sanctions it will have to apply. With Palestinians having committed 3,272 acts of terrorism in just the past six months, it’ll be challenging for the US government to catch up.
The writer is a certified interfaith hospice chaplain in Jerusalem and the mayor of Mitzpe Yeriho, Israel. She lives with her husband and six children.