A masked mob descended on an elderly Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank and beat him. AP News documented the attack. Video circulated showing settlers engaged in ongoing violence against Palestinian residents. Israeli security forces — present in the area — did not intervene.

This is not an aberration. Human rights groups and journalists have documented a sharp and sustained rise in settler violence across the occupied West Bank, carried out with near-total impunity and, in many cases, in the direct presence of Israeli security forces who stand by or actively assist. The violence against this elderly man is one data point in a documented pattern of systematic terror against a civilian population.

The same week, a United Nations report formally accused Israel of decades of “severe racial discrimination and segregation” in the West Bank — conduct the report equates with apartheid. That word carries legal weight. It names a system, not just individual acts of violence. And it demands a response from every government that claims to stand for human rights.

“What Israel is doing in the West Bank is a systematic campaign of displacement, intimidation, and de facto annexation,” United Voices said. “Armed Israeli settlers, emboldened, enabled, and protected by the Israeli government, are carrying out violent attacks against Palestinian civilians with total impunity. Homes are attacked, land is seized, and communities are terrorized while Israeli forces stand by or actively assist. This violence is not incidental — it is policy-driven.”

The United States provides Israel with billions in annual military assistance. That assistance comes with legal conditions — including requirements that recipients not obstruct humanitarian aid and not commit human rights abuses. A masked mob beating an elderly man while Israeli forces watch is a human rights abuse. A UN report documenting apartheid is a human rights finding. Congress has the authority and the obligation to respond to both.

United Voices is calling on Congress and President Trump to use U.S. leverage — including conditioning military aid — to pressure Israel to end settler violence, uphold international law, and protect Palestinian civilians. The elderly man beaten by a masked mob in the West Bank is someone’s grandfather. He deserved protection. He did not get it. Congress can decide whether that changes.