Every autumn, Palestinian families in the occupied West Bank go out to harvest their olive trees — a tradition rooted in centuries of agricultural life and, increasingly, an act of survival in a landscape where their land is being systematically seized. This year, as in years past, they were met with violence.

Illegal Israeli settlers attacked a group of Palestinian villagers, activists, and journalists during the harvest, wielding sticks and clubs and hurling rocks. Two Reuters news agency employees were among those injured. The attack was documented and widely reported — and the settlers responsible face no meaningful accountability under a system that has consistently shielded them from consequences.

This is what impunity looks like in practice. Settlers — many of whom serve simultaneously as Israeli army reservists — attack Palestinian farmers on their own land, in front of international journalists, and face no charges. The olive harvest, which represents both livelihood and cultural identity for Palestinian families, has become a recurring flashpoint precisely because settlers know they can act without consequence.

The numbers behind the violence are stark. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 241 journalists and media workers have been killed in the Israel-Gaza conflict since it began — making this the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began tracking data in 1992. Attacking reporters covering settler violence is not incidental — it is strategic. Fewer witnesses means fewer records of what is actually happening on the ground.

The Trump administration lifted sanctions on Israeli settlers earlier this year — sanctions that had been one of the few tools available to hold individual settlers accountable for documented attacks on Palestinians. United Voices is calling on the administration to immediately reimpose those sanctions and to make clear to the Israeli government that violence by settlers against civilians and journalists carries real consequences.

Olive trees take decades to grow. Palestinian families have tended these groves for generations. Watching armed men destroy that harvest — and that history — while the world’s most powerful government looks away is not a policy disagreement. It is a moral failure with a name and a face. Those responsible for this attack should be identified and charged. The system that shields them must be dismantled.