JNS
The U.S. president also canceled a Biden order that protected the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
U.S. President Donald Trump revoked a host of what he called "harmful" executive orders and actions under former President Joe Biden, including Executive Order 14115 of Feb. 1, 2024, which sanctioned Jews living in Judea and Samaria accused of "undermining peace, security and stability in the West Bank."
"The previous administration has embedded deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal and radical practices within every agency and office of the federal government," Trump said on Monday.
"The injection of 'diversity, equity and inclusion' into our institutions has corrupted them by replacing hard work, merit and equality with a divisive and dangerous preferential hierarchy," the president said.
He added that the revocations he announced on Inauguration Day "will be the first of many steps the United States federal government will take to repair our institutions and our economy."
On Feb. 1, Biden froze four Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria, who he said were guilty of committing violent crimes, from the U.S. banking system. The Biden administration sanctioned five Israeli entities and three people for "violent extremism" on July 11, but it got the name of one of the Israelis wrong and sanctioned the wrong person.
On Nov. 18, the Biden administration sanctioned three more Israelis and three entities, again saying that those sanctioned "undermine peace, security and stability in the West Bank and the safety of both Israelis and Palestinians."
In January, two Israeli-Americans sued the Biden administration and said that they had been improperly sanctioned and denied due process.
In the final week of his presidency, Biden extended the national emergency that he declared on Feb. 1 in Judea and Samaria for another year, through Feb. 1, 2026.
In addition to revoking the order under which the Biden administration sanctioned people in Judea and Samaria, Trump also canceled Executive Order 14022, of April 1, 2021, in which Biden ended the "national emergency" with respect to the International Criminal Court.
The court, which is based in The Hague and which is independent of the United Nations, has since sought arrest warrants for Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
By revoking Biden's executive order, Trump returned Executive Order 13928, of June 11, 2020, which referred to the court's "illegitimate assertions of jurisdiction over personnel of the United States and certain of its allies" and sanctioned those connected to the court who asserted such jurisdiction.
"President Trump re-imposes sanctions via executive order on ICC officials who target Americans and Israelis," wrote Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. "Next up: The Senate will follow the House’s lead by passing legislation that enshrines these sanctions into permanent law."
"We thank President Donald Trump for reinstating the sanctions against International Criminal Court officials who target for prosecution Americans and our democratic allies," AIPAC stated. "We urge the Senate to join the House in adopting legislation making it permanent law to apply these sanctions."
Another executive order, titled "Re-Evaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid," pauses "new obligations and disbursements of development assistance funds."
Trump ordered the responsible government departments and agencies to "make determinations within 90 days of this order on whether to continue, modify, or cease each foreign assistance program based upon the review recommendations," in consultation with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
It was not immediately clear what programs and countries would potentially be impacted by the executive action, however, it is likely to impact U.S. foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority.
On his first day in the White House, the Republican president also signed an executive order that seeks to "ensure that admitted aliens and aliens otherwise already present in the United States do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions or founding principles, and do not advocate for, aid or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security."
The order was seemingly in keeping with the July 8 Republican National Committee platform calling for the deportation of "pro-Hamas radicals."
According to CBS News, Trump signed approximately 200 orders, memoranda and proclamations during his first hours in office, undoing Biden administration policies and implementing his "America First" agenda.
