Since the Israeli non-governmental organization Yesh Din began monitoring in 2006 Settler violence in the occupied West Bankthe one that was just finished was by far the worst year from the point of view of the number and severity of the attacks – over a thousand -, the massive involvement of Israeli civilians and the consequences for the Palestinian civilian population. Yesh Din's data is consistent with that of the United Nations: 621 attacks in 2022, 1200 in 2023.
The period after October 7th was particularly violent, with 242 acts of violence by settlers against a hundred Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank, where they were staying nine Palestinians killed. But they had also been there in the months before very serious episodeslike in Huwara in February and in Turmusaya in June, when hundreds of Israeli settlers had settled with fire and sword Palestinian villages, dozens of houses burned, hundreds of people injured and at least two killed.
In recent weeks, Israeli security forces have released a number of reports to the media Data minimization, which suggests that 2023 wasn't a terrible year after all. However, this data does not refer to violent attacks by settlers, but to the number of complaints. Therefore, if you read them carefully, you will see that it is not settler violence that is decreasing, but… the increase in Palestinian distrust of justice the occupation authorities.
Also read World | By Gianni Rosini.
The US has imposed sanctions on violent Israeli settlers. That hasn't happened since the Clinton administration
As highlighted in a previous post, files were opened from 2005 to 2022 1597 cases of violence of Israeli civilians against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem); 1531 investigations were completed but not yet complete; the others resulted in 46 convictions. In total, Only three percent of investigations into Israeli settler violence since 2005 have resulted in a conviction.
Yesh Din concludes that settler violence is not a settler “campaign,” as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu stated. Settler violence is a policy of the Israeli government.