US Secretary of State Antony Blinken notified Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during meetings yesterday that the Biden administration is preparing to announce a series of visa bans against Israeli settlers involved in attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, an Israeli official tells The Times of Israel. A US official confirmed the plan to AFP.
The announcement will likely only include the number of settlers being banned from the US, rather than their names, the Israeli official says, explaining that the US hopes that the anonymity will serve as a deterrent against those considering targeting Palestinians who won’t know whether they’ve been black-listed or not.
The visa ban could be imposed as early as next week, the Israeli official says.
Well, this is pretty much nothing, so that checks out.
It’s about as milquetoast response to actual terrorism and ethnic cleansing as you can get. Years late, no real effect or punishment, won’t apply to a relatively large number who are Israeli-US dual-citizens and thus don’t need visas, etc.
Edit: Oh and Israel has a visa waiver agreement with the US right now so unless that’s suspended it’s absolutely useless because nobody even has to apply for a visa from Israel.