Dems hammer Israel over West Bank settlements: ‘Illegal’ and ‘indefensible’

House Democrats are bashing Israeli leaders over the vast expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank, arguing the developments are not only illegal but will also make it impossible to negotiate any long-term peace deal in the Middle East. 

The West Bank settlements, which have grown dramatically under the right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have flown largely under the radar since the start of the Israel-Hamas war a year ago, overshadowed by the intensity of the violence in Gaza — and more recently in Lebanon — where Israel has focused its military response to Hamas’s attacks of Oct. 7.

That’s a mistake, according to a growing chorus of Democrats in the Capitol, who are accusing the Israelis of stealing land from Palestinians and, in the process, crippling the chances of a negotiated peace agreement founded on the creation of an autonomous Palestinian state, which they see as the only path to a lasting deal.

“The only long-term solution is the two-state solution,” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) said. “And that imperils the two-state solution.”

Rep. Gregory Meeks (N.Y.), senior Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, agreed that the West Bank settlements will make it only harder to achieve any long-term resolution. He said the United States should be pressing harder on Israeli leaders to rein in the residential expansions for the sake of a lasting peace.

“Some may feel that’s a short-term gain, but it will cause long-term pain,” Meeks said. “And that’s what I want to prevent.”

Many Democrats are accusing Netanyahu — who opposes the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel — of using the settlement expansions as a deliberate strategy to ensure a two-state design is never achieved. As evidence, they say Israeli leaders, including those in the military, have largely ignored incidents of settler violence against Palestinians, which have increased since last year’s Hamas attacks. 

“Of the many egregious acts of the state of Israel, I think the one that is most overlooked and simultaneously offensive is, not just the pattern of settlements — the intentional pattern of settlements in order to eliminate the possibility of a cohesive Palestinian state — but the behavior and the willingness of the [military] and others to overlook the behavior of the settlers. The violent behavior of the settlers,” Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) said. 

“Gaza is an issue unto itself, but the settlements in the West Bank are just indefensible.”

Democrats have a long history of clashing with Netanyahu, Israel’s longest serving prime minister. But the tensions have escalated since the Hamas attacks on Israel last October in which the group killed roughly 1,200 people and kidnapped 250 more. 

Democrats are quick to advocate for Israel’s right to self-defense, and they’ve voted overwhelmingly to send more military aid to Netanyahu’s country. But they’ve also condemned his aggressive military strategy in pursuing Hamas militants, which has killed more than 40,000 people dead in Gaza, a region where the majority population consists of women and children.

Less visible have been Israel’s moves in the West Bank, where Netanyahu’s far-right coalition government launched an aggressive settlement expansion strategy even before Hamas’s attacks and has continued on pace since. The effort is being led by Netanyahu’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who opposes a Palestinian state and wants Israel to take permanent control of the West Bank. 

“I’m concerned about the atrocious violation of human rights against Palestinians in Gaza. But what’s not getting as much attention are the human rights violations and the attacks in the West Bank,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said. “What Netanyahu’s trying to do is make it impossible to have a two-state solution.”

Several Israeli groups monitor the settlement expansions. One of them estimated earlier in the year that almost 40,000 acres of land had been seized from Palestinians in the first eight months following Oct. 7. The expansions have contributed to a spike in deadly clashes between Israelis and Palestinians, according to international aid groups monitoring the trend.

Between Oct. 7, 2023, and Sept. 23 of this year, 693 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli defense forces and settlers, according to the latest report from the United Nations. Over the same span, 23 Israelis were killed by Palestinians. 

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a vocal critic of the expansions, suggested there’s no path to peace without a two-state strategy, and there’s no way to secure a two-state strategy while those settlers remain.

“They’ll have to move once we make a Palestinian state,” Khanna said. “But it’s just making it harder.”

Even some Republicans acknowledge the settlements present an obstacle to any permanent peace deal in the region. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said he’s been in talks with leaders of Saudi Arabia, who are crucial to such an agreement and insistent on the two-state model that’s been jeopardized by the settlement expansions.

“The Saudis are intent about a Palestinian state,” McCaul said, “and that would include part of the West Bank.”

The Israeli government, under numerous leaders, has encouraged the West Bank settlements ever since it seized the territory from Jordan in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Since then, almost 500,000 Israelis have settled in the occupied region, alongside almost 3 million Palestinians. 

Some supporters of the settlements argue Israelis are entitled to the West Bank by religious fiat or historic birthright. Others maintain they serve as a necessary security buffer between Israel and the terrorist groups, including those backed by Iran, that are seeking to wipe it from the map. 

The perpetual threat to Israel was thrust into the spotlight Tuesday when Iran attacked key security targets in the country with an estimated 180 ballistic missiles. Following the assault, Netanyahu defended his approach to the West Bank — a region he and other settlement supporters refer to as Judea and Samaria, its biblical names — saying Israel will defend itself from any threat, anywhere. 

“We will keep to the rule we have determined: Whoever attacks us, we attack them,” Netanyahu said Tuesday during a meeting of his Cabinet. “This is true wherever we fight the axis of evil. It is true in Judea and Samaria. It is true in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and Syria — and it is also true in Iran.”

The issue has been an enormous headache for the Biden administration, which has sought a delicate balance between demonstrating a steadfast support for Israel, America’s closest ally in the Middle East, and pushing back against the aggressive military strategy pursued by Netanyahu, particularly as the number of civilian casualties has grown in both Gaza and the West Bank. 

In February, Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the settlement expansions, saying they are both “inconsistent with international law” and “counterproductive to reaching an enduring peace.” 

Still, the pressure from Washington has gone largely ignored in Israel, where Netanyahu has pushed ahead with the expanded settlements. 

“The challenge is that when the administration challenges Netanyahu, he uses it to his political advantage back home to say he’s willing to stand up to the Americans, which helps his right-wing coalition,” Moulton said.

Those dynamics are prompting howls from more and more Democrats on Capitol Hill, who are increasingly proposing to withhold certain aid to Israel unless Netanyahu does more to rein in the settlement expansions. Some say the Biden administration should invoke the Leahy Law, which bars the State and Defense departments from delivering aid to those security units of foreign countries known to violate human rights. 

“The White House needs to get tougher,” McGovern said. “I think they need to identify units under the Leahy Law and actually sanction those military units for human rights violations. … There needs to be renewed attention to whether we have to condition aid, or whether we have to actually withhold aid, because it’s being used in a way that quite frankly goes against U.S. law and goes against our values. 

“I co-chair the Human Rights Commission,” he added. “I’m horrified by the human rights atrocities that we’re learning about every single hour.”  

Others went a step further, focusing their criticism on Israeli leaders but also suggesting those at home are complicit in the rising civilian toll — and the continued barriers to a long-term peace agreement. 

“The quiet expansion of settlements in the West Bank shows clearly that, No. 1, Netanyahu is not interested in a two-state solution; and No. 2, he’s doing everything he can to ensure that it’s not possible for a two-state solution; and No. 3, he is baking in armed conflict for the foreseeable future in the Middle East,” Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) said.

“There won’t be any peace without a resolution of the Palestinian issue — statehood,” he continued. “And what is so frustrating about it is that U.S. policy is allowing him to do it with impunity.”