Within weeks of President Biden imposing financial sanctions on Israelis accused of violent attacks in the occupied West Bank, crowdfunding campaigns on behalf of two of the men had raised the equivalent of more than $170,000.
Far-right Israelis pledged the funds in a show of support for the settlers, whose efforts to exert Israeli control over land in the West Bank have often included maintaining illegal outposts and attacking and intimidating Palestinians. However, the donations have become the focus of a legal battle after an Israeli credit card company disputed the transfer of the funds.
Cal, the credit card company that processes donations for Yinon Levi, one of the settlers affected by sanctions, refused to send the money designated for Mr. Levi and said it would reimburse those who had donated, according to the non-profit group that created the crowdfunding campaign. The group appealed to an Israeli court, arguing that the donations were intended for Mr. Levi’s family, including his three children, and should not be affected by the US restrictions.
Last week, a court in Tel Aviv issued a temporary injunction while it hears arguments on the matter.
Sanctions announced by the Biden administration on February 1 barred four Israelis from the US financial system, and some Israeli banks have placed restrictions on the men in order not to run afoul of the US measures.
Mr. Levi, who the US State Department has accused of leading settler groups in attacks on Palestinian and Bedouin civilians, told ABC News that he could not access his money in Israel and would struggle to pay farm workers. of. David Tsai Chasdai, who the State Department said led a deadly uprising in the Palestinian city of Huwara, told an Israeli television channel that he could not pay his phone bills or his children’s kindergarten tuition.
On February 6, a campaign in support of Mr Levi – who last week was also hit with sanctions from Britain – appeared on the Israeli crowdfunding platform Givechack with a photo of him, his wife Sapir Levi and their three children. The campaign portrayed the family as victims of harassment by the Israeli left and highlighted their financial situation after Mr Levy’s accounts were frozen.
Within 10 days the campaign had raised over 517,000 Israeli shekels ($141,000). Then the non-profit group that organized it took it down. Reut Gez, the director of the nonprofit Mount Hebron Fund, said in an interview that Cal, the Israeli credit card company, “asked us to take down the campaign and we are withholding the funds.” The group filed a lawsuit to get the company to release the money either to it or to a trustee who would manage the funds for the family.
The Mount Hebron Fund was established in 2015 by the Mount Hebron Regional Council, a state-owned local authority in the West Bank, and is run by council members and their relatives, according to the Democratic Bloc, a group that monitors the Israeli far-right. Ms. Gez said all donations for the Levi family had come from Israel.
The campaign to support Mr. Chasdai has raised 114,000 shekels, about $31,000, through a separate crowdfunding platform. These funds have been raised by the non-profit organization Shlom Asiraich, which helps Israeli Jewish extremists imprisoned for serious crimes, including murder, mainly against Palestinians.
Crowdfunding efforts show that although most Israelis, according to opinion polls, oppose settler violence, there is sympathy on the far right for those facing economic sanctions. But the sweeping nature of US sanctions means financial institutions would be reluctant to join efforts to funnel money to Mr Levy or others, experts said.
“The language of the decree suggests that anyone who allows or provides funds to sanctioned individuals is involved and risks consequences,” said Eliav Lieblich, a law professor at Tel Aviv University. “No one wants to mess with the US Treasury.”
