This week, the American Christian Zionist nonprofit organization Texans for Israel and several American Jews living in Israel filed a lawsuit in federal court in Texas that challenged the sanctions the Biden administration has begun to place on a growing list of Jews living in Israel, with a focus on those living in the ancestral Jewish lands of Judea and Samaria.
These sanctions can be placed on anyone the Biden administration regards as involved in “undermining peace or stability” in the Middle East.
Reut Ben-Haim was recently added to the Biden administration’s sanctions list of Jews. She is a courageous Israeli mother and leader of the Tzav 9 organization. Her crime? Speaking out against the funneling of aid to Gaza that inevitably ends up in the hands of Hamas, prolonging the suffering and perpetuating the conflict. Thus, the administration’s sanctions are not just misguided but morally reprehensible.
Let’s dissect the hypocrisy here: When Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad unleashed brutal massacres in Syria, the world rightly called for humanitarian aid and welcomed Syrian refugees fleeing the war-torn country. Similarly, during the Russia-Ukraine conflict, nations rallied to aid Ukrainian civilians and offered refuge to those displaced by the conflict. Assisting refugees to flee a war zone is a sane policy that actually saves lives.
Yet when it comes to Gaza, a different standard applies. Gazans must remain in Gaza. There is no international effort to help Gazans escape the war zone. This plays directly into Hamas’s strategy of using non-combatant Gazans as human shields to be killed in the line of fire and then used as headline news around the world showcasing Israelis as “baby killers.” In truth, Hamas is responsible for non-combatant deaths in Gaza, since the Hamas terrorists hide amongst civilians.
Instead of encouraging countries to rescue Gazan refugees, the world—including the Biden administration—insists on funneling aid into Gaza without addressing the fact that Hamas controls and manipulates the aid for its own nefarious purposes. The aid allows Hamas to remain in power, holding on to our captives and killing us. It also inadvertently aids Hamas in its propaganda war against Israel, using Gazan civilians as human shields and ensuring that their suffering continues unabated.
Reut Ben-Haim and Tzav 9 are not anti-aid; they are pro-life. Their protest is rooted in the desire to save lives by preventing aid from falling into the hands of terrorists who use it to perpetuate violence.
For decades, Hamas has routinely diverted and misappropriated aid meant for civilians to build tunnels, acquire weapons and maintain its grip on power. It continues to do the same thing today. This misuse of humanitarian assistance directly contributes to the cycle of violence, prolonging the conflict and causing unnecessary loss of life on all sides.
If the Biden administration genuinely cared about saving lives in Gaza, it would advocate measures that protect civilians rather than inadvertently supporting Hamas’s agenda. Encouraging countries to provide sanctuary to Gazan civilians fleeing the conflict zone would be a step towards humanitarian justice and peace.
By sanctioning Reut Ben-Haim for exercising her fundamental right to free speech and protest, the Biden administration reveals its misplaced priorities and moral compromises.
The sanctions on Reut Ben-Haim send a chilling message: Dissent against policies that inadvertently aid terrorists will not be tolerated, even when motivated by humanitarian concerns and the desire to save lives. The sanctions undermine the principles of free speech and humanitarian ethics, casting a shadow on the administration’s claim to promote human rights and international justice.
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his recent speech to Congress, felt he had to focus on the positive support from the Biden administration, no doubt for political reasons, it must be noted and said out loud that the Biden administration’s decision to sanction Reut Ben-Haim is not just an attack on her rights but a betrayal of the principles the administration claims to uphold.
It is time for the international community to recognize that blindly funneling aid into Gaza without addressing Hamas’s control and manipulation of that aid only perpetuates the conflict. Saving lives requires courage and moral clarity, qualities that Reut Ben-Haim embodies in her protest against aid that inadvertently supports terrorism.
