H.R. 10642 - Stop the Settlements Act
H.R. 10642 was introduced on September 30, 2026 by Representative Joaquin Castro (D-TX-20). It is currently pending before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and has 41 co-sponsors on a party-line basis.
Bill Summary: The Stop the Settlements Act would require the President to sanction any foreign person who is responsible for or complicit in, directly or indirectly, engages in or attempts to engage in, the construction of Israeli settlements or outposts in the West Bank or Gaza on or after September 30, 2026. This includes the investment in or construction of infrastructure facilitating new settlements or outposts or the expansion of existing ones; the transfer of Israeli civilians into settlements or outposts on or after September 30, 2026; or construction or development in the E1 area within the Maale Adumim municipal zone. Mandatory sanctions also reach leaders and officials of any entity, including any government entity, engaged in such activity. The President may impose the same sanctions on persons who participate in the financing, planning, expansion, or maintenance of settlements or outposts that undermine the viability of a future Palestinian state, or who materially support, are controlled by, or act on behalf of a sanctioned person.
Designation carries asset blocking under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), notwithstanding that Act's national emergency requirements, and renders the person inadmissible, ineligible for a visa or any other benefit under the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.), and subject to immediate revocation of existing entry documentation. Humanitarian transactions, international obligations, and U.S. security activities are exempt, and sanctions may be waived for up to 12 months, renewable once, on national security certification. The Act separately bars imports of goods produced in settlements or outposts beginning 120 days after enactment, requires semiannual reporting to the foreign affairs committees, and sunsets after 10 years.
Context: On September 8, 2026, the foreign ministers of eleven U.S. allies - Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, as well as Ireland, announced their intention to restrict trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, citing unprecedented settler violence, settlement expansion, and the Israeli government's decision to publish tenders for the E1 project. That decision reflects openly declared policy. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said the Palestinian state is being erased from the table "not with slogans, but with actions," and E1 was advanced to sever East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and foreclose Palestinian statehood. Roughly 750,000 Israelis now live in at least 148 settlements in the occupied West Bank and 15 in occupied East Jerusalem, all planned, funded, and built with direct government approval under Israeli law. Rejection of Palestinian statehood is not confined to the current governing coalition: Gadi Eisenkot, a leading contender in the coming election, has called anyone still thinking about two states after October 7 "simply delusional," and opposes annexation only because absorbing the West Bank's Palestinian population would end Israel's Jewish majority. The Act responds to this trajectory proactively, sanctioning construction that occurs on or after September 30, 2026 including any expansion of current settlements. E1 is the single exception, in that it would be liable to sanctions regardless of when construction occurs. The Act's inclusion of Gaza, where no Israeli settlements currently exist, anticipates the growing movement within Israeli politics to rebuild and expand them. If enacted tomorrow, this bill would result in a very substantial portion of the Israeli economy being sanctioned.
American Values Analysis: Self-determination is a fundamental American value as reflected in our nation’s foundational documents. Israel’s settlement enterprise purposefully upends the basic calculus of self-determination, by displacing one population and replacing it with another. The Stop the Settlements Act stands for the U.S. value of self-determination by pushing back on Israel’s effort to create “facts on the ground” counter to the existing reality, which it does by attaching consequences to participation in settlement construction, and affirms that protection from forced displacement and the right to self-determination are owed to Palestinians on the terms Americans claim for themselves.
American Interest Analysis: The outcome of the West Bank settlement project will either embolden or deter Israeli movements already calling for settlement expansion into Gaza, southern Lebanon, and southern Syria. This bill aligns the United States with its closest Western Democratic allies and signals to Israeli politicians that the United States will not underwrite the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
A New Policy’s Recommendation: SUPPORT
A New Policy supports H.R. 10642 because it imposes real consequences on a settlement enterprise that decades of unconditional U.S. support has green-lit, and it joins the United States with its closest allies in defending Palestinian self-determination.
For more information please contact: Josh Paul, (202) 770-0055, info@anewpolicy.org
