President Joe Biden directed top officials to prepare visa bans and sanctions for extremist Israeli settlers attacking and displacing Palestinians in the West Bank, according to an internal document read to POLITICO.
The Cabinet memo, sent to senior aides like Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday, orders their agencies to develop policy options for expeditious action against those responsible for the conduct of violence in the West Bank.
A senior U.S. official read sections of the memo to POLITICO on Saturday evening shortly after Biden published an op-ed in The Washington Post revealing his intentions for such a move. The United States is prepared to take our own steps, including issuing visa bans against extremists attacking civilians in the West Bank, he wrote in the op-ed.