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In addition to
individual settlers and outposts and groups, the executive order is written in
such a way as to potentially encompass settler councils, and the administrative
apparatus, and anyone or any structure that supports illegal outposts, Waxman
said. The U.S. could, in effect, go after the very systems of power
that enable and uphold illegal settlements.

Here too, there is a
difference between what the U.S. has done so far and what it could do.
“To be meaningful, I would want to see dozens, maybe hundreds of individuals
who are named,” said Elgindy, an adviser to the Palestinian leadership in
Ramallah from 2004 to 2009. The other test would be what kind of people: There
are the government officials whose names were leaked as being considered, but
there are also those in between government ministers and “random settlers,”
Elgindy said, namely army commanders or individual soldiers, who may accompany
settlers, “even when they’re rampaging,” and stand by in the face of violence. 

Dror Sadot,
spokesperson for B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization focused on the
occupied territories, echoed this. Sadot lauded the Biden administration for
making clear that settler violence is on the agenda. But B’Tselem, she
explained, is focused on trying to make clear that settler violence is an arm
of the state, and of successive governments that have supported settlers. There’s
the military guarding them, the police refusing to hold people accountable for
violence. “Israel should be held accountable
for this, and not [just] the individuals,” Sadot said.