Nearly 90 Democratic congressmen demand Biden sanctions against Ben Gvir and Smotrich

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MADRID 14 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –

A total of 88 congressmen from the Democratic Party sent a letter to the president of the United States, Joe Biden, at the end of October, in which they urged him to issue sanctions against the Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich – recognized for their racist and xenophobic– before he leaves the White House on January 20.

“We write to express our deep concern about the increase in settler violence, the expansion of settlements and the measures taken to weaken the Palestinian Authority and otherwise destabilize the West Bank,” said the congressmen, who point directly to the “inflammatory rhetoric” of the aforementioned ministers.

Thus, the letter highlights that the “incitement to violence” by the Minister of National Security, Ben Gvir; and his colleague at the head of Finance, Smotrich, has emboldened the settlers, who in the last year have carried out “more than 1,270 attacks” against Palestinians in the West Bank, an average of more than three a day.

“Given your critical role in advancing policies that promote settler violence, weaken the Palestinian Authority, facilitate ‘de facto’ and ‘de jure’ annexation, and destabilize the West Bank, we urge you to sanction Finance Minister Smotrich and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir”, reads the letter.

Likewise, Democrats insist that “government leaders who instigate violence must be subject to US sanctions”; and they denounce that the Executive of Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahi, has “radical officials” who “allow” settler violence and enact “annexationist policies.”