William Maddocks and Scott Dickman are board members of New Hampshire Peace Action.

Since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that approximately 48,000 individuals — mostly civilians, 70% of them women and children — in Gaza have died due to Israeli military operations.

The Israeli military, largely funded by American tax dollars, has reduced 80% of Gaza to uninhabitable rubble using the brutal attack by Hamas as justification. While the Gaza campaign has been temporarily halted by the recent ceasefire, Israeli settlement activity and violence towards Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank has increased.

Now, why the West Bank? Historically, the Jewish people enjoyed independent rule on the same land during intermittent periods between 1,020 BCE and 135 CE, totaling approximately 500 years. And for thousands of years, a considerably diminished Jewish presence in the land persisted continuously until a large-scale Jewish immigration began in the 20th century. Fast forward to 1967, this same area was seized by Israel during the Six-Day War and continues to retain special significance for Israeli religious extremists. These extremists include Cabinet ministers and officials in senior government positions, who believe settlement expansion in the West Bank is required to fulfill the biblical aspiration of re-inhabiting this ancient land.

Since 1967, long before Netanyahu, Israel has obscured its long-term objectives regarding the West Bank by framing settlement approvals as a response to security concerns, rather than deliberate territorial expansion in concert with religious extremist ambitions. Specifically, Israel has used bureaucratic and legal measures to restrict Palestinian development and deny Palestinians self-determination while expanding Israeli settlements.

For instance, despite international condemnation, settlement construction continues with over 13,000 new housing units approved in 2023 alone. In response, The International Court of Justice, the UN General Assembly, the UN Security Council and many nations have condemned Israel’s occupation as illegal under international law. Even Israel’s own Supreme Court has ruled that Israel holds the West Bank under “belligerent occupation” and that international law does apply to Israel’s presence in the West Bank.

Since Oct. 7, over 50 rural Palestinian communities in the West Bank have been abandoned amid intensifying attacks and harassment by Israeli settlers almost always carried out with the support of the army and police.

According to Amnesty International, “Israel’s launch of a major coordinated military assault on cities and towns across the occupied West Bank follows an escalation in unlawful killings by Israeli forces in recent months and will put more Palestinians at risk.” The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has reported that “there has been a horrifying spike in lethal force by Israeli forces and violent state-backed settler attacks in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, with Israeli forces and settlers killing at least 622 Palestinians, including at least 142 children.”

During this escalation, Israelis also killed Americans, including teens Tawfiq Ajaq and Mohammad Khdour, who planned to return to the U.S. to study law, and 26-year-old Aysenur Eyzi Eygi, who was killed by Israeli soldiers while protesting in The West Bank. With this and the death of prominent Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022 at the hands of the Israel Defense Forces, we question why our tax dollars are being used to arm another country who has faced no consequences for murdering Americans.

The re-election of President Donald Trump has emboldened the Israeli government’s rhetoric when addressing the illegally occupied West Bank. According to a CNN report, Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich recently told members of his party that “the only way to remove the threat of a Palestinian state is to apply Israeli sovereignty to [the West Bank].” This radical agenda is not restricted to a fringe constituency. Rather, it reflects official government policy.

This annexation of Palestinian land in the West Bank will undoubtedly be supported by the Trump administration, as evidenced by the appointments of Marco Rubio as Secretary of State, Elise Stefanik as UN Ambassador and Mike Huckabee — who has said “Palestinians don’t exist” — as Ambassador to Israel.

Expanding settlements, subjecting the West Bank to military occupation and denying Palestinians their right to self-determination are largely responsible for the violence we see. Arguing that these draconian measures are required for security reasons is the height of irony. Unless the U.S. demands an end to the oppression of the Palestinian people, whose majority presence on the land extends back millennia with deep historical and cultural roots, a lasting peace and security is not possible for anyone in the region.

If you agree with New Hampshire Peace Action’s goal to decrease violence in the world and to value all human lives equally, please contact Congress to voice your concerns and to demand an end to the Israeli government’s annexation of the West Bank and the delivery of lethal weapons too often utilized to kill innocent civilians.