Washington, DC – A spokesperson for the State Division in the USA has been questioned concerning the killing of Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen, allegedly by the hands of an Israeli settler beforehand sanctioned by the US authorities.
At a information briefing on Tuesday, State Division spokesperson Tammy Bruce demurred when requested whether or not the suspect in Hathaleen’s demise, Yinon Levi, can be held accountable.
“Israel has investigations that it’s implementing relating to conditions of this kind,” Bruce stated. “I don’t know the tip results of what that’s going to be, nor will I remark or speculate on what ought to occur.”
Bruce’s tense alternate with reporters got here someday after video circulated exhibiting Levi opening fireplace on Hathaleen within the village of Umm al-Kheir within the occupied West Financial institution.
The 31-year-old Palestinian activist later died from a gunshot wound to his chest.
Levi is amongst a number of Israeli settlers within the occupied West Financial institution who had been previously sanctioned beneath the previous administration of US President Joe Biden for perpetrating violence in opposition to Palestinians.
However President Donald Trump reversed these sanctions in an govt order shortly after taking workplace for a second time period in January. The UK and the European Union, nonetheless, preserve sanctions in opposition to Levi.
Hathaleen, a resident of Masafer Yatta, had helped create the Academy Award-winning documentary No Different Land, which captured the results of Israeli settlements, that are unlawful beneath worldwide regulation, and assaults on Palestinians within the West Financial institution.
In Tuesday’s information briefing, Bruce appeared to recommend that Hathaleen’s capturing occurred within the “warfare zone” of Gaza, earlier than being corrected.
Nonetheless, she maintained that the Trump administration sought to deal with violence wherever it occurred.
“It’s the identical argument. We see this within the West Financial institution. We all know when there’s violence typically. We noticed one thing unfold in New York Metropolis as nicely, with a capturing in New York Metropolis yesterday,” she stated, in an obvious reference to an unrelated capturing in a Manhattan skyscraper.
The State Division didn’t reply to a subsequent request from Al Jazeera about whether or not the Trump administration would revisit its sanctions coverage in mild of the killing.
On Tuesday, Israeli media reported that Levi had been positioned on home arrest after being charged with manslaughter and illegal firearm use.
Unlawful settlements and Trump
Hathaleen was a father of three who coordinated with a number of influential advocacy and lobbying teams within the US, and his demise has renewed scrutiny of Trump’s insurance policies in the direction of unlawful Israeli settlements in occupied territories just like the West Financial institution.
Throughout his first time period, Trump reversed a longstanding coverage recognising such settlements as unlawful. Such settlements are in violation of worldwide regulation and broadly seen as a method of displacing Palestinians and seizing their lands.
However Israeli settlements have continued to unfold quickly in recent times and are seen as a serious roadblock to future peace agreements with Palestinian leaders.
Upon taking workplace earlier this yr, Trump revoked many Biden-era govt orders, together with the sanctions in opposition to Israeli settlers. The transfer reportedly got here amid stress from the Israeli authorities beneath Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Throughout his time period, Biden had been criticised for persevering with to funnel support to Israel amid its warfare in Gaza, however his administration confirmed a willingness to take a tougher line when it got here to settlements within the occupied West Financial institution.
“The state of affairs within the West Financial institution — particularly excessive ranges of extremist settler violence, pressured displacement of individuals and villages, and property destruction — has reached insupportable ranges,” Biden’s govt order, dated February 2024, stated.
It added that Israeli actions within the West Financial institution represent “a severe menace to the peace, safety, and stability of the West Financial institution and Gaza, Israel, and the broader Center East area”.
Violence on the a part of Israeli settlers and navy forces has surged since Israel’s warfare in Gaza started on October 7, 2023, with at the least 1,000 Palestinians killed within the West Financial institution.
Rights observers say violent settlers are sometimes protected by the navy as they assault Palestinians.
These killed have included US residents, most not too long ago Sayfollah Musallet, a 20-year-old resident of Florida, crushed to demise whereas visiting his household’s land within the village of Sinjil.
In a uncommon assertion condemning Musallet’s killing, US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a vocal supporter of Israeli settlements, referred to as on the nation to “aggressively examine” what he referred to as a “prison and terrorist act”.
Thus far, nobody has been arrested or charged within the killing.
In an announcement following Monday’s assault, J Road, a left-leaning pro-Israel lobbying group, referred to as on US lawmakers to help laws that may codify the Biden-era sanctions in opposition to settlers like Levi.
The group defined that its members had “deep, private ties” to Hathaleen, and stated they had been “heartbroken and horrified” by his killing.
In a put up on the social media platform X on Tuesday, Congress member Delia Ramirez referred to as Hathaleen’s killing “a painful reminder that our authorities and Israel proceed to allow and condone violence within the West Financial institution”.
“We should reinstate the sanctions on West Financial institution settlers perpetrating violence and maintain accountable all these whose excessive and escalating violence continues to rob us of our neighbors — together with Trump and Netanyahu,” she wrote.
