President Joe Biden’s new sanctions on Israel, Israeli organizations and citizens have incited congressional pushback from Florida’s Republican lawmakers.
The US State Department announced the sanctions late last week.
The organizations and individuals sanctioned are Israeli NGO Hashomer Yosh and its volunteers.
Hashomer Yosh is a non-profit NGO created to protect Israeli farmers in the West Bank.
According to the State Department, Hashomer Yosh and the individuals sanctioned supported “extremist violence” against West Bank civilians.
US Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) decried the sanctions, alleging they are superficial attempts to appease progressives within President Biden’s administration.
Senator Rubio sent a letter to State Department Secretary Antony Blinken rejecting the sanctions and requesting the latter focus on deterring America and Israel’s enemies rather than weakening Israel.
“Israel has a functioning judicial system that is fully capable of prosecuting crimes committed within its borders,” said Rubio. “Instead of allowing Israel to carry out their duty to investigate and prosecute any alleged crimes, this administration continues to insert itself, in what many could only surmise as appeasing the progressives in the party.”
Biden’s administration already sanctioned Israeli entities and individuals earlier this year.
Earlier sanctions targeted David Chai Chasdai, Einan Tanjil, Shalom Zicherman, and Yinon Levi for their role in allegedly attacking West Bank civilians and their property.
Chasdai, who has been prosecuted by Israeli authorities, allegedly led a riot, which involved setting property on fire and assaulting Palestinian civilians, leading to one death.
All the individuals named will have any personal assets under US control frozen and reported to the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). No US persons may perform any transactions with the sanctioned individuals or any entity controlled by them.
Rubio criticized such sanctions similarly to how he criticized last week’s sanctions.
Rubio responded to Biden’s decision by inquiring upon the president’s failure to remove Hamas supporters from US soil.
Last October, Rubio filed a resolution calling for the cancellation of visas of foreign nationals supporting Hamas.
