AIPAC-led US delegation raises concerns about deadly Israeli settler violence  

A delegation of Democratic Members of the US Congress in Israel this week on an AIPAC-sponsored visit voiced concerns over settler violence against Palestinians during a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is leading the delegation, told reporters in Jerusalem of the concerns in the US about the escalation of deadly violence against Palestinians by illegal Jewish settlers. The visit comes three days after a “Jewish terrorist” shot and killed a young Palestinian near the village of Burqa in the occupied West Bank. The US State Department described the incident as a “terror attack”.

However, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose party has been described as the political wing of Israeli terrorist groups, said that the killer deserves an award for his actions.

Jeffries was reported in Haaretz as saying that the issue of settler violence was raised in the meeting with Netanyahu. He explained that it may “complicate efforts to achieve peace in the region.” The congressman provided few details beyond saying that the issue was discussed and that such violence is unacceptable.

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A readout from Netanyahu’s office about the meeting included his discussions about peace with Saudi Arabia and Israeli tech innovation, but omitted the settler violence issue and the discussion about Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul, which Jeffries said also took place.

The delegation was made up of Jeffries and 25 other Democratic House members as well as the head of pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC. It arrived in Israel on Sunday and met with Netanyahu yesterday, on the eve of the prime minister’s planned holiday. The trip, dominated by members of Congress newly-elected last year, is being sponsored by the American Israel Education Foundation, an AIPAC-affiliated non-profit group.

Jeffries repeated a familiar US script, saying that the delegation came to the region with a “strong interest in getting to a place where we can proceed toward a viable path to a two-state solution, recognising that we are not at that place right now” but preserving “the hope of a lasting peace with Israelis and Palestinians living side by side with two states, an Israeli state that is safe and secure, and a demilitarised Palestinian state.”

The trip went ahead even as a growing number of Democrats more closely associated with the party’s centre as well as its progressive wing have grown increasingly emboldened in critiquing Israel and denouncing it as an apartheid state.

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