Trump Revokes Biden Sanctions on Judea, Samaria Residents, again Targets ICC

January 21, 2025

by: JNS

Tuesday, 21 January 2025 | US President Donald Trump revoked a host of what he called “harmful” executive orders and actions under former President Joe Biden, including Executive Order 14115 of February 1, 2024, which sanctioned Jews living in Judea and Samaria accused of “undermining peace, security and stability in the West Bank [Judea and Samaria].”

“The previous administration has embedded deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal and radical practices within every agency and office of the federal government,” Trump stated on Monday.

“The injection of ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ into our institutions has corrupted them by replacing hard work, merit and equality with a divisive and dangerous preferential hierarchy,” the president said.

He added that the revocations he announced on Inauguration Day “will be the first of many steps the United States federal government will take to repair our institutions and our economy.”

On February 1, Biden froze [the accounts of] four Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria, who he said were guilty of committing violent crimes, from the US banking system. The Biden administration sanctioned five Israeli entities and three people for “violent extremism” on July 11, but it got the name of one of the Israelis wrong and sanctioned the wrong person.

On November 18, the Biden administration sanctioned three more Israelis and three entities, again saying that those sanctioned “undermine peace, security and stability in the West Bank and the safety of both Israelis and Palestinians.” In January, two Israeli–Americans sued the Biden administration and said that they had been improperly sanctioned and denied due process.

In the final week of his presidency, Biden extended the national emergency that he declared on February 1 in Judea and Samaria for another year, through February 1, 2026.

In addition to revoking the order under which the Biden administration sanctioned people in Judea and Samaria, Trump also canceled Executive Order 14022, of April 1, 2021, in which Biden ended the “national emergency” with respect to the International Criminal Court [ICC].

The court, which is based in the Hague and which is independent of the United Nations, has since sought arrest warrants for Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

By revoking Biden’s executive order, Trump returns Executive Order 13928, of June 11, 2020, which referred to the court’s “illegitimate assertions of jurisdiction over personnel of the United States and certain of its allies” and sanctioned those connected to the court who asserted such jurisdiction.

“President Trump re-imposes sanctions via executive order on ICC officials who target Americans and Israelis,” wrote Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Next up: The Senate will follow the House’s lead by passing legislation that enshrines these sanctions into permanent law.”

“We thank President Donald Trump for reinstating the sanctions against ICC officials who target for prosecution Americans and our democratic allies,” AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] stated. “We urge the Senate to join the House in adopting legislation making it permanent law to apply these sanctions.”

Posted on January 21, 2025

Source: (This article was originally published by the Jewish News Syndicate on January 20, 2025. Time-related language has been modified to reflect our republication today. See original article at this link.)

Photo Credit: (Photo 1) Adam Schultz/White House/jns.org

Photo Credit: (Photo 2) The Trump White House/Wikimedia.org

Photo License: Wikimedia