Two members of Congress with long pro-Israel records have called on U.S. President Donald Trump to respond to what they say is increasing “settler violence” in Judea and Samaria.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) wrote to the president, stating that matters have gotten worse since they first raised these concerns with Trump’s predecessor, former President Joe Biden.
“Increased instances of extremist settler violence continue to endanger innocent lives, fuel incitement and retaliatory action, undermine Israel’s security and threaten efforts to pursue peace in the region,” the lawmakers said.
“As a result, we urge you to press the Israeli government to take significant action to prevent settler violence, hold perpetrators accountable, seek justice for the victims of violent crimes already committed, and ensure the safety and security of civilians in the West Bank,” they wrote. (Some lawmakers and states refer to Judea and Samaria as the “West Bank.”)
If Israeli officials fail to act, Booker and Goldman said that Trump should “reinstate sanctions against those determined to be responsible for these violent and destabilizing crimes.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s lack of action “emboldens Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups and builds resentment in the West Bank, while putting increased pressure on the fragile ceasefire agreement in Gaza,” they wrote.
The letter followed condemnations of the violence by top Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog and Israel Katz, the defense minister.
In the letter, Booker and Goldman renewed their support for a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, which Israel opposes. A new United Nations resolution, which passed the Security Council and which Washington wrote, envisions “a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”
The two-state solution is “the only viable option that affirms and protects Israel’s right to exist as a democratic, Jewish state and ensures the Palestinian people’s right to human dignity, prosperity, self-determination and a state of their own,” Booker and Goldman wrote.
“Unchecked extremist settler violence and de facto or de jure settlement expansion threatens the very seeds of trust and cooperation needed to make progress toward this goal, which is fundamental to an enduring peace in the region,” they wrote.
