This Rosh Hashanah, The Tides are Turning
Rosh Hashanah asks us to pause, to look back at the year that was and investigate honestly where we fell short. It is a moment of renewal and accountability.
For years, we at the New Israel Fund have spoken out about growing settler violence in the West Bank. We have warned of and worried over its implications for Palestinians living under occupation, for democracy, and for Israeli society.
At the beginning, we and our partners were among the few raising our voices. NIF grantees were the small minority brave enough to act on the ground—physically protecting Palestinians, sharing information with the media, and challenging every case of dispossession and violence in the courts. We remained steadfast in those efforts, despite our isolation.
But now, the tides are turning.
This week, the UK, Canada, and France announced a trade ban on goods from West Bank settlements. The UK’s statement explained that these measures are a response to the “ethnic cleansing of Palestinians…perpetrated by settler terrorists.”
Distinguishing between Israel and the settlements is critical. It is the only way for us to protect Israel’s future as a democracy from the ongoing threat of the settlement project and its violent actions.
Last weekend, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee described settler attacks as “acts of terror.” The New York Times reported that retired senior Israeli generals now call settler actions “the real threat to Israel”—more concerning, they said, than Iran, Gaza or Lebanon. Even Israel’s current ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, called settler violence a “stain” on Israel’s reputation last week.
These statements and actions matter—not only because they are true, but because they come from institutions that spent decades calling settlements illegal while doing little to stop them, offering diplomatic cover even as Palestinian communities were destroyed. We are reaching a watershed moment: a meaningful turning point on an issue we know must be addressed head on. Our calls to end settler violence are no longer outside of the mainstream.
The High Holidays don’t stop at Rosh Hashanah. We take ten days to reflect. And then we continue on to Yom Kippur. It is not a day of pointing fingers, but instead of taking responsibility. We speak in the plural—we, as a community, have sinned. We hold ourselves communally responsible for the wrongs we have committed and the wrongs we have tolerated. We ask ourselves uncomfortable questions:
What have we normalized? What have we excused? What have we been unwilling to confront because it was politically difficult, socially uncomfortable, or simply easier to look away?
And then we act.
May this Rosh Hashanah bring us the courage to see clearly even that which is painful; the humility to acknowledge where we could have done more; and the unrelenting determination never to stop building something better. Shana tova.
