On March 7, 2023, I was walking with another international activist near Tuba village in Masafer Yatta, a group of villages at the southernmost end of the West Bank, when we were set upon by Israeli settlers from the nearby illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on. One settler chased my companion, wielding an iron bar, and another struck me from behind with a large stick, knocking me out, fracturing my skull and causing a bleed in my brain.
As a U.S. citizen with supporters here at home, I was able to get the State Department and Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., to press my case with Israel. As a result, the settler who hit me was arrested and charged with assault — though the odds of him being convicted or suffering more than a slap on the wrist are slim.
For Palestinians living in Masafer Yatta, such attacks are an almost-daily occurrence. Recently, Israeli airstrikes on Gaza have killed 34 Palestinians — including at least 13 civilians, seven of whom were children — and injured another 147 between May 9 and 13. But amid the destruction, a small crack has appeared in the United States’s decades-long commitment to funding the Israeli occupation of Palestinian areas and we should be doing all we can to widen it.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., joined 12 other lawmakers to call on the Biden administration to “undertake a shift in U.S. policy in recognition of the worsening violence, further annexation of land, and denial of Palestinian rights” by Israel. Their letter, delivered in mid-April, recommends attaching conditions to the $3.8 billion Israel receives from U.S. taxpayers annually.
The letter also requests that no U.S. funds be used to support illegal settlements, and urges that existing regulations prohibiting assistance to military forces that commit gross human rights violations should be applied to Israel. Above all, the letter is a progressive recognition that our tax dollars will be used to violate the human rights of Palestinian civilians as long as we keep giving Israel a blank check to do just that.
Supported by Israeli military and police, illegal settlers regularly and violently attack people and animals, and destroy crops and property. To file a complaint, Palestinians must go to the police station inside of a settlement, where they are more likely to be arrested or interrogated for hours than having any action taken against their attackers. Of the legal complaints made against settlers, 93% are dismissed by Israeli courts.
I’ve been doing accompaniment and solidarity work as a volunteer in these villages for a dozen years, spending about two months in the area each spring. From my own firsthand experience, I know that settlers in Masafer Yatta have become even more brazenly engaged in a violent and systemic campaign to drive Palestinians out and permanently seize their land. As part of that campaign, the area’s 1,300 residents are also facing imminent destruction of their homes to make way for the Israeli military’s war exercises.
This is what U.S. taxpayers are buying with the $8 million we give Israel each day, which amounts to the strangulation of villages caught between illegal outposts. As concerned citizens, we have a responsibility to insist the Biden administration stop making exceptions for Israel when it comes to human rights abuses in Palestinian areas. We know better than to stand by and allow an occupying power to demolish schools and homes.
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Cassandra Dixon lives in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. She is a residential carpenter and has volunteered in Palestinian areas for the last decade. The Israeli settler who attacked her is on house arrest, with a trial scheduled for July. This column was produced for The Progressive magazine and distributed by Tribune News Service.
