Four days after the Biden administration admitted that it accused an uninvolved Israeli citizen of “undermining peace, security and stability” in Judea and Samaria and sanctioned the wrong man, it fixed the mistake on the websites of the U.S. Departments of State and the Treasury late Monday afternoon after repeated queries from JNS.
“We acknowledge that there was a data error in our recent listing. The Specially Designated Nationals list is being updated to list Shlomo Yehezkel Hai Sarid,” a State Department spokesperson told JNS on Friday. “We sincerely regret any inconvenience this error may have caused.”
That statement came after Israeli media reported on Thursday that U.S. sanctions against Tzav 9 founder Shlomo Sarid targeted a man with a similar name, and the full name and national identification number in the U.S. statements belonged to someone who was not affiliated with the anti-Hamas protest group.
The U.S. announcements included Aviad Shlomo Sarid’s home address and identification number, which is like a U.S. social security number but is not something that Israelis generally keep secret.
“This is a resident of Samaria, an active reservist who is not active in the Tzav 9 organization,” Davidi Ben-Zion, deputy head of the Samaria Regional Council, told Hebrew media last week. “His only ‘sin’—in quotation marks—is that he bears the same name as a Tzav 9 operative.”
“This is a crazy thing. Forget about the fact that Biden’s sanctions are a threat to every Israeli citizen and reservist,” the local leader told Israeli media. “Now an ordinary citizen is paying the price because of U.S. harassment.”
A Foggy Bottom spokesperson told JNS on Friday that the Treasury Department’s “specially designated nationals” list was being updated to list Shlomo Yehezkel Hai Sarid—a resident of the Jordan Valley—but both a State Department fact sheet and the Treasury Department sanctions list continued to list Aviad Shlomo Sarid at press time on Monday.
After JNS published, and after it sought further information from the State Department about what was involved in changing the incorrect name on the department websites, both departments updated their listings online. The Treasury Department noted that it had updated its listing and removed both men’s home addresses.
The State Department also updated the listing on its site, but didn’t note the change.
Shlomo Yehezkel Hai Sarid told Israel’s Walla news site on Thursday that “I am sorry that people are hurt by this and am currently trying to contact the guy who was harmed by the sanctions.”
“I realize that he is also a reservist. I hope that the sanctions against him will be lifted soon,” he told Walla.
The sanctions are “not democratic and against the values that the Americans themselves talk about,” the Tzav 9 activist added.
On Feb. 1, U.S. President Joe Biden issued Executive Order 14115, sanctioning “persons undermining peace, security and stability in the West Bank.” The order cited “high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages and property destruction.”
Sarid was described by Washington as a “leader and co-founder” of Tzav 9, which the department accused of having “blocked humanitarian aid convoys traveling towards the Gaza Strip.” The protest movement previously denied using violence and has since changed tactics.
The executive order places those sanctioned on the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s specially designated nationals and blocked persons list. It blocks property and interests held in America that belong to any designated individual and prohibits U.S. citizens from contributing or providing funds, goods and services to or to benefit those designated.
