John, I’m writing because the situation in the West Bank has reached a breaking point, and some in Congress are responding. I’d like your help to get more Members of Congress to speak up. Take action here. In recent months, senior Israeli officials have been increasingly explicit about their determination to reshape the West Bank through unilateral actions. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said he will act “not by slogans but by deeds,” and has advanced maps proposing that Israel annex roughly 82 percent of the West Bank. Prime Minister Netanyahu has reinforced this direction, declaring, “this place belongs to us.” Settlement approvals and infrastructure projects continue to expand Israeli control over Palestinian land. And the Knesset is advancing legislation to formalize this policy. All of this is unfolding alongside a level of settler violence that is unlike anything we’ve seen before. According to the United Nations, settlers carried out at least 264 attacks against Palestinians in October alone – with an average of eight attacks every day, the highest monthly total since the UN began tracking data in 2006. Families are being targeted with arson, assaults, threats, and destruction of their land and property. This violence is not random; it’s pushing entire communities off their land and accelerating de facto annexation. Write your Representative and Senators. Villages like Taybeh, Wadi Foquin, Silwan, and Al-Walaja are being transformed by this combination of state policy, legal maneuvers, and daily intimidation. People who have lived on their land for generations are being forced out, and the landscape is changing in ways that make any future negotiation far more difficult. Senator Peter Welch and Representative Ro Khanna are circulating a letter urging Secretary of State Rubio to press back against Israeli efforts to apply sovereignty or annex parts of the West Bank by opposing settlement construction in E-1, by opposing the pro-annexation Knesset bills, and by reinstating the Biden-era sanctions against violent settlers. Make your voice heard by urging your Representative and your Senators to support this effort. In solidarity, Hadar Susskind
President and CEO | 