Friend --
Israeli peace activists posted videos of last week’s attack while still nursing their wounds.
The images are distressing. Over a dozen masked settlers converging on Palestinian farmers and Israeli activists in the occupied West Bank. Beating them with poles. Setting a car ablaze. Leaving them with fractured bones and bloody headwounds.
The footage below -- circulated by Rabbis for Human Rights -- is just the latest evidence of a surge in violent attacks against Palestinian families and farmers, as well as the Israelis who stand with and support them.
Over the last 12 months, these attacks have left several dead, dozens injured and put a child in the hospital after a rock fractured his skull. One Israeli minister called the attacks “organized terror.” Another said that “violent settler gangs supported by the indifference of the army” are making the lives of Palestinians “unbearable.”
Yet Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who counts the settlement movement as part of his political base, has said the problem is “insignificant.” Week after week, month after month, the attacks have continued.
I know this footage is upsetting to watch -- especially for those of us who have friends in these communities and care deeply about Israel’s future as a just, democratic homeland for the Jewish people -- but we cannot look away. We must confront the realities of the occupation if we are going to convince our leaders to take the action needed to end it.
Friends -- We need your name on our petition calling on the Biden Administration to push for immediate action on this.
Add Your Name
Last week (and every week) groups like Rabbis for Human Rights, the Olive Harvest Coalition and Machsom Watch quite literally put themselves on the frontline of our shared fight for justice, equality and peace. Here in the United States, it’s vital that we have their backs.
For months, our movement has been organizing to bring more attention to the issue of settler violence, to press for Israeli authorities to end the impunity and prevent these attacks, and to call for stronger US action to stop this injustice. It’s an effort that’s gaining in strength.
In recent days, a growing chorus of leaders both in Israel and the US have spoken out. This week, seven prominent American Jewish groups -- including the Reform Movement, the Conservative Movement and the Anti-Defamation League -- called on Israeli leaders to take “unequivocal action” to stop “ongoing terrorism and political violence committed by Jewish Israeli extremists in the West Bank.”
We must build on this momentum and make sure that our leaders take this crisis seriously. Please read, sign and share our petition if you have not already done so >>
Together, we’re making clear that this type of violence and impunity stems from a military occupation that denies fundamental civil rights and political freedoms to millions of people. That’s why we must commit ourselves to ending it, and to achieving a better future in which the rights and security of both Israelis and Palestinians are guaranteed.
Thank you, sincerely, for joining us in this fight.
Yours,
Logan Bayroff,
VP of Communications
