Back عنف المستوطنين Arabic Israelische Siedlergewalt German Violencia de los colonos israelíes Spanish خشونت شهرک‌نشینان اسرائیلی Persian Violence des colons israéliens French 以色列定居者的暴力行为 Chinese

Israeli settler violence

Swedish volunteer Tove Johannson (pictured) suffered a broken cheekbone from a hit in the face with a bottle by an Israeli settler in Hebron on November 18, 2006. She and other European members of the International Solidarity Movement sought to escort Palestinian children home from school.[1][2]

Palestinians are the target of violence by Israeli settlers and their supporters, predominantly in the West Bank. In November 2021, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz discussed the steep rise in the number of incidents between settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank, many of which result from attacks by residents of illegal settler outposts on Palestinians from neighboring villages.[3] Settler violence also includes acts known as price tag attacks that are in response to actions by the Israeli government, usually against Palestinian targets and occasionally against Israeli security forces in the West Bank.[4]

Settlers attack an elementary school in Mu'arrajat, Jericho District, September 2024

Palestinian police are forbidden from reacting to acts of violence by Israeli settlers, a fact which diminishes their credibility among Palestinians.[5] Between January and November 2008, 515 criminal suits were opened by Israel against settlers for violence against Arabs or Israeli security forces; 502 of these involved "right wing radicals" while 13 involved "left wing anarchists".[6][7] In 2008, the senior Israeli commander in the West Bank said that a hard core of a few hundred activists were involved in violence against the Palestinians and Israeli soldiers.[8] Some prominent Jewish religious figures living in the occupied territories, as well as Israeli government officials, have condemned and expressed outrage over such behavior,[9] while religious justifications for settler killings have also been given.[10] Israeli media said the defense establishment began taking a harder line against unruly settlers starting in 2008.[11] In 2011 the BBC reported that "vast majority of settlers are non-violent but some within the Israeli government acknowledge a growing problem with extremists."[4] UN figures from 2011 showed that 90% of complaints filed against settlers by Palestinians with the Israeli police never led to indictment.[4]

In the 21st century, there has been a steady increase in violence and terror perpetrated by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.[11] In 2012, an EU heads of mission report found that settler violence had more than tripled in the three years up to 2011.[12] United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) figures state that the annual rate of settler attacks (2,100 attacks in 8 years) has almost quadrupled between 2006 and 2014.[13] In 2021, there was yet another wave of settler violence which erupted after a 16-year-old settler died in a car chase with Israeli police after having hurled rocks at Palestinians. So far it has resulted in 44 incidents in the span of a few weeks, injuring two Palestinian children.[14] In the latter parts of 2021, there has been a marked increase in settler violence toward Palestinians, condemned at the United Nations Security Council.

This violence increased further following the election of a far-right government in 2022 which proposed to expand Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories, as well as the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. In October 2024 Al Jazeera reported that there were 1,423 recorded incidents of settler violence in the west bank since October 7, with 321 incidents, Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, 319 incidents in Nablus Governorate and 298 in Hebron Governorate.[15]

  1. ^ "Swedish human rights worker viciously attacked by Jewish extremists in Hebron". November 18, 2006. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
  2. ^ "Amnesty International's annual report on Israel and the Occupied Territories". May 24, 2007. Retrieved October 28, 2015.
  3. ^ Harel, Amos (November 19, 2021). "Settler Attacks on Palestinian Spike, Reflecting Israel's Systemic Failure". Haaretz. Retrieved November 21, 2023.
  4. ^ a b c Donnison, Jon (November 17, 2011). "Concerns over rising settler violence in the West Bank". BBC. Retrieved March 25, 2012.
  5. ^ Daniel Byman, A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism, Oxford University Press/Saban Center, Brookings Institution, 2011 p. 292: 'Palestinian police are barred from responding to settler violence. This policy reduces friction between settlers and Palestinian authorities, but it decreases the overall credibility of the PA, which cannot defend its people from settler harassment and violence.'
  6. ^ "Violence by Extremists in the Jewish Settler Movement: A Rising Challenge". The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. November 25, 2008. Retrieved March 26, 2012.
  7. ^ Constance B. Hilliard, Does Israel have a future?: the case for a post-Zionist state, Potomac Books, Inc., 2009 p. 59.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference bbc1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Weiss, Efrat (June 20, 1995). "Rabbi slams Jewish 'hooligans' - Israel News, Ynetnews". Ynetnews. Ynetnews.com. Retrieved September 14, 2012.
  10. ^ Amitai Etzioni, Security First: For a Muscular, Moral Foreign Policy, Yale University Press, 2008 p. 119.:'Others have justified violence against Arabs by citing the rule from the Talmud: "If a man comes to kill you, rise early, and kill him first."
  11. ^ a b Anshel Pfeffer,Top IDF officer warns: Settlers' radical fringe growing, Haaretz 20 October 2009.
  12. ^ Hider, James (March 21, 2012). "Israel 'turning blind eye' to West Bank settlers' attacks on Palestinians". The Guardian. London. Retrieved March 23, 2012.
  13. ^ Chaim Levinson, Gili Cohen and Jack Khoury , 'Palestinian mosque set on fire in suspected hate crime,' at Haaretz, 15 January 2014. 'The annual totals are up from 115 in 2006 to 399 in 2013..'
  14. ^ Times of Israel Staff. “5-Year-Old Palestinian Boy Hurt by Rock Thrown at Car in Reported Settler Attack.” The Times of Israel, January 22, 2021. Times of Israel
  15. ^ Ali, Hanna Duggal,Marium. "Mapping 1,400 settler attacks in the occupied West Bank over the past year". Al Jazeera. Retrieved October 10, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

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