On February 8, Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian shepherds grazing their flocks in the community of Sadet a-Tha’leh near Hebron in the occupied West Bank. They expelled Palestinians from pastures and used drones to scare their livestock. As a result, shepherds suffered serious losses, as many of their terrified animals suffered miscarriages or stillbirths in the middle of the lambing season.
The incident is not unique and is part of what human rights advocates describe as a “settler-led economic war that is leading to displacement.”
What happened in Sadet a-Tha’leh is one of 561 incidents of Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians recorded by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) between October 7 and February 20. killed at least eight Palestinians and injured 111, according to the OCHA database. Repeated waves of violence perpetrated by settlers, often supported by the army, have resulted in the displacement of 1,208 Palestinians, including 586 children, spread across 198 households.
While humanitarian and human rights organizations tend to record these acts of violence as separate incidents, they constitute a systematic brutality unleashed by extremist settlers against the Palestinian population of the occupied West Bank, alongside plausible acts of genocide perpetrated by the Israeli army in Gaza.
Supported by Israeli security forces and aided and abetted by the government, settler violence is a central element of the Israeli state’s policy and plan to ethnically cleanse the occupied Palestinian territory in order to establish full sovereignty there. and to allow the expansion of colonies – despite the fact that colonies are being created. illegal under international law.
The colonization enterprise: illegal in its entirety
The settlements are a series of state-sponsored (or largely state-tolerated, in the case of more informal outposts and “farms”) urban settlements built for Israelis in the occupied West Bank and Plateau. Golan.
All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, as they violate Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which Israel has ratified. Furthermore, settlement expansion plans are often used as a means to consolidate the de facto annexation of territories occupied by Israel, in violation of the prohibition of territorial conquest by force set out in Article 2(4). of the Charter of the United Nations.
Despite the clarity of international law on the issue, supported by the 2016 UN Security Council resolution without a US veto, Israel has provided the political conditions and economic incentives, as well as infrastructural support, to the growth of 279 colonies in the West. Bank in which some 700,000 settlers reside.
The settlements’ footprint extends beyond walled urban areas into the surrounding countryside, where vulnerable Palestinian families live in constant fear of attacks on their homes, the herds they depend on for their livelihoods and their livelihoods. general.
In some of the 16 Palestinian communities forcibly transferred since October 7, such as Khirbet Zanuta in the South Hebron Hills, settlers have already fenced off the land, effectively controlling it for their own use and preventing Palestinian communities from returning.
Settler violence as state violence
The political positions of extremist settlers, at the heart of which is the desire to rid the occupied West Bank of Palestinians, have entered mainstream Israeli politics.
After high-profile incidents of settler violence, government officials have embraced and expressed support for such acts. Government ministers have openly incited settlers to commit acts of violence against Palestinians. Last year, for example, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the destruction of the Palestinian town of Huwara.
The settlers benefited not only from political support but also from military support. Over the past two decades, the deployment of Israeli security forces in the West Bank to help “secure” illegal Israeli settlements has expanded. In addition, “territorial defense units” composed of settlers were created, trained and armed by the Israeli army.
For years, armed settlers have attacked Palestinians under the protection and participation of Israeli security forces.
Since October 7, numerous army units have been deployed to the Gaza front, giving settler territorial defense units an even greater role in establishing control over occupied lands. The line between security forces and armed settlers has become increasingly blurred, particularly under the leadership of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. In recent months, he has ordered the distribution of thousands of firearms and other combat equipment to settlers.
Although perpetrated by private citizens, settler violence in occupied Palestine can only be understood as state violence. Relevant international law, including articles on State responsibility for internationally wrongful acts, confirms that a range of conduct committed by non-State actors, such as armed Israeli settlers, can be attributed to the State.
Prominent human rights organization B’Tselem has described settler violence as a form of state violence, through which Israel can “have it both ways.” It can claim that this is violence perpetrated by individuals – a few “bad apples” among the settlers – and deny the role of its own security forces, while profiting from its consequences – the expulsion of Palestinians from their lands.
Abandoning the Duty to Protect
Under international law, Israel, as the occupying power, has an obligation to protect the Palestinian population. Nonetheless, settler violence takes place openly and with complete disregard for the laws of war and human rights.
The fact that Israeli security forces accompanied and protected the settlers during their violent rampages clearly indicates that they are actively ignoring their legal responsibilities to the occupied population.
The lack of accountability for settler violence before Israeli courts – military or civilian – demonstrates that Israeli authorities are unwilling to end impunity. Already in 2013, a UN fact-finding mission reported that “the Israeli authorities know the identity of the settlers responsible for violence and intimidation, but these acts continue with impunity”.
A more recent investigation by a human rights NGO found that between 2005 and 2023, Israeli police closed 93.7% of investigative files involving Israelis who harmed Palestinians and their property in the occupied West Bank. Since the current government took office in December 2022, 57.5% of Palestinian victims of Israeli crime have chosen not to file complaints due to a lack of trust in the system.
Settler violence has been adopted by the Israeli state as a tool to accelerate the pace of Palestinian displacement. Once key parts of occupied Palestine have been cleared of indigenous Palestinian communities, the settlement enterprise can then continue unabated and unopposed and annexation can also take place.
Given that settlement activities constitute a recognized violation of international law, the international community cannot accept the violence of settlers who drive Palestinians from their lands to facilitate settlement expansion.
Investigations are underway into the situation in Palestine at the International Criminal Court (ICC). ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan confirmed that his office is accelerating investigations related to settler violence, emphasizing that “Israel has a fundamental responsibility as an occupying power” to investigate and prosecute these crimes, prevent their recurrence and guarantee justice.
In our opinion, the ICC investigations could only have a deterrent effect if they covered the role of the Israeli authorities in authorizing this violence, but also the illegality of the settlements. The “transfer of civilians” by the occupying power is indeed one of the most documented alleged war crimes in Israel.
We also find recent sanctions against violent settlers imposed by the US, UK, France and other states short-sighted. By targeting individuals, but not the state, Western powers continue to give Israel carte blanche when it comes to violating the rights of Palestinian civilians living under Israeli occupation.
Instead, the international community must clearly and unhesitatingly blame settler violence on the Israeli state and hold those responsible to account in appropriate international forums for failing to take decisive action to prevent it, stop it. and reverse its effects.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.