Posted on 02/04/24
| News Source: Arutz-7
Bank Leumi notified Yinon Levi, one of four Israelis who were targeted last week by US sanctions, that his accounts in Israel have been frozen.
Kan News reported that Levi has two accounts with Bank Leumi: a personal one, together with his wife, and a business account with his brother.
On Friday US President Biden signed an executive order to impose sanctions on four Israelis who according to the State Department were involved in violent incidents against Arabs in Judea and Samaria. In addition to Levi, sanctions have been imposed on David Chai Chasdai, Einan Tanjil, and Shalom Zicherman.
According to the State Department Levi "led a group of settlers who engaged in actions creating an atmosphere of fear in the West Bank. He regularly led groups of settlers from the Meitarim Farm outpost that assaulted Palestinian and Bedouin civilians, threatened them with additional violence if they did not leave their homes, burned their fields, and destroyed their property. Levi and other settlers at Meitarim Farm have repeatedly attacked multiple communities within the West Bank."
Levi denies the Americans' claim. "The executive order is a result of requests by the anarchist, anti-Zionist Left, which hates the Jewish people, to Biden, who made up a bunch of stories about the people of Israel's pioneers. Biden, who is unable to deal with the Houthis, who murder American soldiers, doesn't scare us. We will continue to settle the Land of Israel without fear."
MK Tzvi Succot visited Levi at his farm on Sunday, and noted that the police investigated the incident: "There is no evidence to the allegations, there is no indictment, criminal record or a record with the Shin Bet. All it is is that leftists don't like that Jews are building a farm."
Regarding the executive order, the MK stated: "It somehow reached the American administration, Biden signed an order to freeze his assets in the US, but the crazy part is that Bank Leumi called him and froze his bank account."
Succot criticized the bank: "It makes no sense for an Israeli bank to freeze the bank account of someone, who is the salt of the earth, because of a leftist libel that reached the Americans. This is illegal, no one has the authority to just freeze someone's bank account, and if the issue is not fixed, I will demand to hold an urgent discussion in the Knesset."