Four senior Church of England bishops have called on the UK government to intensify the use of sanctions and to be willing to suspend its trade agreement with Israel over settler violence in the occupied West Bank. The situation there is “in freefall with increasing levels of settler violence and intimidation against Palestinians”, the bishops say in a letter to the Guardian. “Settler violence is state violence by any other name.”The letter is signed by Guli Francis-Dehqani, the bishop of Chelmsford; Rachel Treweek, bishop of Gloucester; Graham Usher, bishop of Norwich; and Christopher Chessun, bishop of Southwark. On Friday, a Palestinian-American man was killed allegedly by Israeli settlers while visiting relatives in the West Bank. The bishops call on the UK government to take action in the form of sanctions against individuals, illegal settler outposts and organisations that support violence, and by suspending the UK-Israel trade agreement.