The Biden administration imposed sanctions on people they called violent settlers in Israel. The people who they call settlers are Jews who live in Judea and Samaria a region which is also called the West Bank. After Israel declared its independence in 1948 the surrounding Arab countries attacked in an effort to destroy her. They failed to destroy Israel but Jordan whose boundary was the Jordan river seized Judea and Samaria which was on the western side of the Jordan river. They then called the area the West Bank. In the war of 1967 Jordan tried to destroy Israel again but this time Israel prevailed and got Judea and Samaria back. Jews who had been driven out of their towns in 1948 and before came back and created settlements that grew into towns and cities. Arabs who lived in the area often committed terrorist attacks against the Jews living there. Many of those attacks came from Huwara because it was on a highway on which many Israelis would drive. In one attack an Arab from the town of Huwara opened fire from close range at an Israeli-owned car stuck in a traffic jam on the Route 60 highway, killing two brothers, Hallel 21 and Yagel Yaniv 19.
Afterwards dozens of angry Israeli settlers reacted by setting fire to Palestinian homes and cars in Huwara. Bezalel Smotrich, the leader of the religious zionism party said the town of Huwara should be wiped out. Fogel, a member of the Knesset said that:
“A closed, burnt Huwara — that’s what I want to see. That’s the only way to achieve deterrence. After a murder like yesterday’s, we need burning villages when the IDF doesn’t act.”
The Biden administration sanctioned Smotrich for his remarks.
There is an article in the Jerusalem Post that put's settler violence in perspective. According to the article citizens of Kansas City, a typical mid-Western US city with just over half a million residents, are some 300 times more likely to be the victims of violent crime than Arabs living in Judea and Samaria.
Additional Links:
https://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2025/06/according-to-un-i-american-am-violent.html
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