Jared Kushner, President-elect Donald Trump’s son-in-law and close confidant, on Wednesday doubled his stake in an Israeli financial firm that stands to gain from turbocharging Israeli settlements in Palestine — just before the announcement of a ceasefire deal that Kushner may have helped advise on.
Now, amid the potential wind-down of Israel’s war in Gaza, Trump’s former top Middle East adviser and family member is poised to benefit from expanding settlement efforts in Palestinian territories under Israeli occupation, which are illegal under international law and are driving mounting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Already, in the hours following the ceasefire announcement, Trump announced his administration would lift sanctions brought by the Biden administration against violent Israeli settlers. According to the United Nations, settlers were responsible for more than 1,000 attacks on Palestinians last year — the highest level of Israeli settler violence ever recorded.