Jerusalem welcomes US sanctions on anti-Israel extremist groups

Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday welcomed U.S. Treasury sanctions designating Palestine Action, Masar Badil and other terrorism-affiliated groups.

The ministry accused terrorist organizations of exploiting Western civil society to conceal violent activity, radicalize young people and channel illicit funding, and praised U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Trump administration for the move.

“The international community must maintain zero tolerance for terrorism and its infrastructure,” the ministry said. “Exposing front organizations and severing their financial and operational lifelines is essential to safeguarding global security.”

European Jewish Congress welcomed in particular the designation of Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, noting that Treasury’s action followed London’s proscription.

“Violence, intimidation and attacks on businesses and critical infrastructure cannot be legitimized under the guise of activism,” the representative umbrella organization of European Jewry wrote. “This designation sends a clear message that violent extremism must be confronted and that those who organize, finance or support it must be held accountable.”

The Trump administration sanctioned on Wednesday three entities it says are “violent far-left terrorist groups,” with all connected to anti-Israel activity.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury designated Palestine Action, a U.K.-based organization that was proscribed as a terrorist group by Britain in July 2025. The group has targeted defense companies and other businesses it associates with Israel, carrying out attacks that have caused millions of dollars in damage, according to the U.S. and British governments.

The British government has said Palestine Action’s attacks, including at defense companies Thales, Instro Precision and Elbit Systems UK, crossed the threshold into terrorism because they involved serious property damage intended to advance the group’s political cause and influence the government.

The U.S. Treasury also designated Masar Badil, a transnational organization that it says operates as a front for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and is closely linked to the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. The PFLP has been designated by the United States as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since 1997, while Samidoun was sanctioned by the United States and Canada in 2024.

“The organizations share fundraising mechanisms as well as senior leaders and members of their respective executive committees,” several of which are sanctioned, as well, the department said.

Two Masar Badil officials, Germany-based Zaid Abdulnasser and Brazil-based Rawa Alsagheer, were also sanctioned.

The third entity, Italy-based Autistici/Inventati, was categorized as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist for providing digital infrastructure and services, including website hosting, encrypted email, chat and video conferencing, to violent, far-left groups.

The U.S. State Department said Autistici/Inventati, also known as the A/I Collective, provides technological services that extremist groups use to publish communiqués and calls to action. A/I Collective “exclusively provides its services to vetted individuals, collectives, and groups it perceives to be aligned with its ideology,” the department stated. Those groups include U.S.-designated terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the PFLP, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“Today, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control took action to counter the growing threat posed by violent far-left terrorist groups. Globally networked and politically motivated terrorists—particularly far-left terrorists—are increasingly embracing organized, deadly violence in pursuit of their objectives,” the Treasury Department said.

In Britain, legal challenges over Palestine Action’s status remain active. In June, a British judge sentenced four activists to prison terms exceeding 20 years for a 2024 raid on an Elbit Systems UK factory that caused roughly £1 million ($1.3 million) in damage and left a police officer with a fractured spine. On June 15, London’s Court of Appeal overturned an earlier High Court ruling that had deemed the government’s ban unlawful, and Britain’s Supreme Court is scheduled to hear an appeal regarding the proscription.