The Carter Center Calls for Action as Violence Escalates in the West Bank

The Carter Center calls upon the international community to demand that Israel prevent settler violence and stop the official and de facto annexation of the occupied West Bank, which is resulting in record numbers of Palestinian deaths, injuries, and displacement.

This year alone, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has documented an average of six Israeli settler attacks per day in the West Bank, resulting in Palestinian casualties, property damage, or both. Settler attacks are now the leading cause of Palestinian injuries in the West Bank, and more than 3,200 Palestinians have been displaced by settler attacks and home demolitions this year—double the daily rate of the previous three years. Settlers are also increasingly targeting international visitors, journalists, and solidarity activists, reflecting a dangerous widening of violence.

The United States and the broader international community must take urgent diplomatic, legal, and economic action to pressure Israel to fulfill its obligations under international law to curb settler violence, ensure accountability, protect civilians, and end policies that enable settlement expansion and annexation. The Carter Center also calls for the governments to prohibit trade with Israeli settlements and ban settlement products from their markets.

Failure to act will only deepen an accelerating cycle of violence, displacement, and instability, further undermining the prospects for a just and lasting peace.