The U.S. Treasury accidentally sanctioned an Israeli man who had nothing to do with a protest movement that President Joe Biden’s administration has been targeting at the behest of radical anti-Israel organizations.
Last month, as Breitbart News reported, the Biden administration announced yet another round of sanctions against Israeli civilians who had not been charged with any crimes — this time, against a group called Tzav 9, which protests against humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip. Tzav 9 argues that the aid strengthens Hamas terrorists, who steal the supplies, and that little or none of the aid reaches the dozens of Israeli hostages still held in captivity.
Breitbart News reported:
The Biden administration has already sanctioned Israel over “extremist settler violence,” targeting individuals who have not been convicted of any crime — while giving Iran, which backs terrorists, billions of dollars in sanctions relief.
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The protests have not prevented aid from reaching Gaza; there is enough aid reaching Gaza every day to feed the entire population, Israeli officials say. A recent poll of Palestinians found that 64% have enough food for a day or two.
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The new sanctions will likely be viewed with alarm in Israel, as Tzav 9 is largely seen as a peaceful movement, one with significant popular support, whose only violent act has been to dump goods from aid trucks onto the road.
Last week, the Treasury expanded its sanctions against Tzav 9 — but sanctioned the wrong person, plunging his personal and financial life into turmoil for no apparent reason. The Times of Israel reported on Monday:
Shortly after the US announcement, it was revealed that the Treasury Department had confused Sarid with an uninvolved Israeli named Aviad Shlomo Sarid, listing the latter’s ID number and birthdate, instead of the information of the Sarid who heads Tzav 9.
Aviad Shlomo Sarid, who lives in the West Bank’s Revava, has since had his bank account and credit card blocked, even though his identity appeared on the blacklist in error.
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Commenting to the Israel Hayom daily, Sarid doubles down on his activism, saying he and his group “will continue to do everything to change the policy of aiding Hamas, which harms our soldiers, until all hostages are returned.”
As Breitbart News noted, many of the sanctions have been prompted by complaints from an anti-Israel group, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), which was founded by the late writer Jamal Khashoggi.
The sanctions represent an extraordinary foray into domestic Israeli politics, treating a peaceful protest movement as if it were a violent terrorist organization and suppressing viewpoints that the Biden administration dislikes.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
