ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The U.S. has imposed sanctions on about a dozen Israelis. It says they've taken violent action against Palestinians and posed obstacles to peace. It's an unprecedented step in the increasingly fraught U.S.-Israel relationship. As NPR's Daniel Estrin reports, the U.S. sanctions are making waves in Israel.
(SOUNDBITE OF BABY CRYING)
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: Reut Ben Haim rocks her baby at her home in Netivot, a town near the Gaza border.
REUT BEN HAIM: I have eight kids and a wonderful husband.
ESTRIN: In the first months of the Gaza war, she co-founded an activist group called Tsav 9. It blocked aid trucks dozens of times as they were on their way to deliver food and humanitarian assistance to Gaza. She switches to Hebrew to explain.
BEN HAIM: (Speaking Hebrew).
ESTRIN: Her group objects to aid being delivered to Gaza. She says the aid is reaching Hamas, not civilians. The U.S. and U.N. say there's extreme hunger in Gaza and that Israel must do more to get aid in. This summer, the U.S. designated her group as a violent extremist organization because activists attacked trucks and destroyed aid. Israeli police never arrested her. She says it wasn't her group that was violent. Still, the U.S. imposed a visa ban and financial sanctions on her. She shows me recent bank messages on her phone.
BEN HAIM: So you can see my credit cards - blocked, all of them.
ESTRIN: Israeli financial institutions don't want to run afoul of the U.S., so every withdrawal has to be accounted for to prove she's buying groceries for her kids and not funding her activist group. Her Israeli pension fund also told her it has to divest her money out of the U.S. So now, her group no longer blocks aid trucks. She doesn't want anyone else getting sanctioned by the U.S.
BEN HAIM: (Speaking Hebrew).
ESTRIN: She says she has no regrets. She gave voice to Israelis who think aid to Gaza only strengthens Hamas.
Altogether, the U.S. has imposed visa bans and financial sanctions on about a dozen Israelis and their small enterprises. Most of them are West Bank settlers accused of assaulting Palestinians. In imposing the sanctions, President Biden's executive order says violence has reached intolerable levels, undermining the viability of creating a Palestinian state. But most Israeli lawmakers say they oppose a two-state solution, and a senior member of Israel's governing coalition, Simcha Rotman, said the U.S. should not try to impose one through sanctions.
SIMCHA ROTMAN: That's not a way to treat a democratic country who made up its mind and sees a Palestinian state or the two-state solution as an imminent danger to the safety of Israel. I call on the American administration to respect Israel's sovereignty and democracy.
ESTRIN: Supporters of the sanctions say it's an effective way to pressure Israel to end its West Bank occupation. Michael Sfard, a human rights lawyer in Israel, says it could be effective, especially if Israeli firms find it too risky to keep doing business with Israeli settlers. But he worries the U.S.' resolve will not last.
MICHAEL SFARD: I am concerned that these sanctions eventually will turn out to be bargaining chips, that eventually some interest that America will have will be traded for this.
ESTRIN: The U.K. and European Union have followed suit with similar sanctions. Canada has gone even further, sanctioning the main Israeli settlement construction company. U.S. officials have suggested they too plan more sanctions.
Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Tel Aviv. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
