FEBRUARY 01, 2024 Message to the Congress on Imposing Certain Sanctions on Persons Undermining Peace, Security, and Stability in the West Bank

 FEBRUARY 01, 2024

Message to the Congress on Imposing Certain Sanctions on Persons Undermining Peace, Security, and Stability in the West Bank

TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES:

     Pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), section 212(f) and section 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (8 U.S.C. 1182(f) and 8 U.S.C. 1185(a)), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I hereby report that I have issued an Executive Order declaring a national emergency to deal with the threat posed by the situation in the West Bank, including in particular high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction.  Such actions constitute a serious threat to the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank and Gaza, Israel, and the broader Middle East region and undermine the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States.  I find that these actions constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, and I have declared a national emergency to deal with that threat.

     The order authorizes the blocking of property and interests in property of any foreign person determined by the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, or the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State:

          (i)    to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have directly or indirectly engaged or attempted to engage in, actions — including directing, enacting, implementing, enforcing, or failing to enforce policies — that threaten the peace, security, or stability of the West Bank;

          (ii)   to be responsible for or complicit in, or to have directly or indirectly engaged or attempted to engage in, planning, ordering, otherwise directing, or participating in certain actions — including acts of violence or threats of violence targeting civilians, efforts to place civilians in reasonable fear of violence, property destruction, or seizure or dispossession of property by private actors — affecting the West Bank;

          (iii)  to be or have been a leader or official of certain entities that have engaged in, or whose members have engaged in, such activities;

          (iv)   to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, any person blocked pursuant to the order; or

          (v)    to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person blocked pursuant to the order.

     The order also authorizes the blocking of property and interests in property of any foreign person determined by the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury, to have committed or have attempted to commit, to pose a significant risk of committing, or to have participated in training to commit acts of terrorism affecting the West Bank.  In addition, the order suspends the entry into the United States of any noncitizen determined to meet one or more of the above criteria.

     The order authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to take such actions, including the promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to the President by IEEPA as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of the order.  It directs the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security, to implement the order as it applies to visas, and it directs the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to implement the order as it applies to the entry into the United States of noncitizens.  All executive departments and agencies of the United States are directed to take all appropriate measures within their authority to implement the order.

     I am enclosing a copy of the Executive Order I have issued.

                             JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

THE WHITE HOUSE,

February 1, 2024.