Senior Church of England bishops urge UK to sanction Israeli settler violence

Four senior bishops in the Church of England have called on the British government to take urgent action against Israel’s escalating settler violence, warning that it is undermining Palestinian life and threatening the Christian presence in the Holy Land.

Writing in The Guardian on Sunday, Guli Francis-Dehqani, Rachel Treweek, Graham Usher, and Christopher Chessun - the bishops of Chelmsford, Gloucester, Norwich and Southwark - said the UK government has both a “legal and moral duty” to act.

“As the war in Gaza persists, the situation in the West Bank is in freefall,” they wrote, citing "increasing levels of settler violence and intimidation" - including recent attacks on land and churches in Taybeh, the last Christian-majority town in the West Bank.

“These attacks undermine the dignity of its Christian residents and threaten their historical and religious heritage,” the bishops added, warning that settler violence has become “an informal tool to annex Palestinian land”.

They accused Israel’s government of enabling these attacks by refusing to intervene. “This culture of impunity rewards settler violence. There is no plausible deniability here – settlers aren’t defying the state; they are doing its bidding. Settler violence is state violence by any other name.”

The bishops urged the UK to sanction individuals, settler groups and outposts responsible for violence, and to consider suspending the UK-Israel trade agreement. They concluded: “The UK government must stop its indecision.”