{"id":200450,"date":"2021-12-06T12:00:38","date_gmt":"2021-12-06T12:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=200450"},"modified":"2024-06-12T21:24:09","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T20:24:09","slug":"hate-crime-attacks-by-israeli-settlers-on-palestinians-spike-in-the-west-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/12\/hate-crime-attacks-by-israeli-settlers-on-palestinians-spike-in-the-west-bank\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Hate Crime\u2019 Attacks by Israeli Settlers on Palestinians Spike in the West Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Israeli soldiers guarding Jewish settlers block the way for a group of Palestinians in Hebron, West Bank on Nov. 24. (photo: Abed Al Hashlamoun\/EPA-EFE\/Shutterstock)<\/p><\/div>\n

29 Nov 2021 – <\/em>Israeli settlers have dramatically increased their attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank over recent months, with violent incidents up about 150 percent in the past two years, according to data presented by the Israeli military at a defense ministry meeting this month.<\/p>\n

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A United Nations agency has separately found that 115 Palestinians have been beaten or otherwise attacked by settlers since the start of the year, with four fatalities. More than 300 incidents of property destruction, including olive trees cut and burned during the autumn harvest<\/a>, were documented over the same time period.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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The wave of beatings, arson, vandalism and rock-throwing \u2014 most taking place where Palestinian farms and groves are adjacent to Jewish settlements established on land captured by Israel in the 1967 war \u2014 has prompted some leaders of the Israel\u2019s governing coalition to call for a crackdown on settler violence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Defense Minister Benny Gantz convened a meeting of security officials earlier this month and said the military would issue new orders against \u201cstanding by,\u201d directing soldiers to do more to prevent the incidents and protect Palestinians, according to media reports. \u201cHate crimes are the root from which terrorism grows and we must uproot it,\u201d Gantz said in a statement after the meeting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Israeli army is in charge of security in areas of the occupied West Bank where settlements are located, but videos compiled by Israeli human rights groups show soldiers frequently do little to intervene during the incidents. The groups say the soldiers are more likely to detain Palestinians than settlers and in some instances have even aided in the attacks. In other cases, however, settlers have clashed with Israeli soldiers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In a statement, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman said, \u201cAny claim that the IDF supports or permits violence by residents in the area is false.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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For their part, settlers protest that the complaints ignore violence and vandalism by Palestinians in the West Bank and Israel. Those incidents range from tire slashings and rocks thrown at vehicles to stabbings and car-ramming attacks against Israeli soldiers. In May, a 19-year-old Jewish student was killed in a drive-by shooting as he waited at a roadside bus stop. A Palestinian man was convicted in the case. Advocates say crimes by Palestinians are aggressively prosecuted while settler violence typically goes unpunished.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On Wednesday, Commanders for Israel\u2019s Security \u2014 group of more than 300 retired Israeli military, security and intelligence officials \u2014 delivered a letter to members of the Knesset, Israel\u2019s parliament, decrying settler violence against Palestinians as a threat to the rule of law and the country\u2019s international standing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cGroups of settlers have been perpetrating deadly acts of violence against Palestinians \u2014 for the most part helpless villagers \u2014 in areas under our control,\u201d they said. \u201cThis is completely unacceptable from an ethical and humanitarian perspective, and it stands in contradiction to Israel\u2019s Jewish values.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Confrontations in the fields<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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At the scene of one violent encounter earlier this year, Said Awad was recently straining to pry a boulder from the dry earth where he hoped to plant an olive tree. As he worked, an audience looked on.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A squad of Israeli soldiers watched from a hillside to his left, stationed at the entrance to a Jewish outpost outside the West Bank city of Hebron. To his right, a group of Jewish Israeli activists watched from the opposite hillside, ready to come to Awad\u2019s aid at any sign of trouble.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Palestinian farmer rested his pickax and shook his head. \u201cI just want to do my work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Palestinians harvest eggplants near the Israeli settlement of Susya in the South Hebron Hills area of the West Bank. They are assisted by Jewish volunteers from Israel who regularly come to help prevent violence and harassment of Palestinian farmers by nearby settlers. (Steve Hendrix\/The Washington Post)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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There had been no soldiers or activists present in March when Awad arrived to find a strange herd of goats grazing on his barley plants. He shouted to chase them away, but men he identified as settlers from Mitzpe Yair, a neighborhood of the nearby Susya settlement, began throwing rocks. They were soon joined by more men in masks and some of them hit him with an iron bar, knocking him unconscious and fracturing his jaw, according to an Israeli police report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Police said they reviewed video of the incident but could not identify any suspects among the masked attackers and made no arrests. They closed the file earlier this month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Highway of hope and heartbreak: A West Bank road trip and the prospects for statehood<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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So on a recent Saturday, about a dozen Israeli activists from the group Ta\u2019ayush boarded a van in Jerusalem for the hour-long drive to Awad\u2019s field in the hopes that their presence would deter settler attacks, or at least spur soldiers to intervene if they did happen. Since the attack on Awad in March, soldiers have been stationed at the gate to Susya.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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While some settlers milled about, none came close to Awad as he cleared rocks from the field. He knows from experience, though, that some of the stones he is stacking neatly will be scattered by his next visit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cHe\u2019s marking his territory so they don\u2019t take his land outright,\u201d said Assaf Sharon, a philosophy professor at Tel Aviv University who said he has been coming to the area as a witness, escort and occasional farmworker for almost 20 years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Palestinian farmer Said Awad works his land in the South Hebron Hills area of the West Bank. His farm is adjacent to a Jewish settlement, and residents there have contested the title to his land. (Steve Hendrix\/The Washington Post)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Shmaya Berkowitz, a spokesperson for the Susya settlement, said he was unfamiliar with the attack on Awad and couldn\u2019t comment on it. In general, he blamed the Jewish activists for creating tensions between the settlers and Palestinians in the area. He characterized the groups like Ta\u2019ayush as European-funded \u201canarchist organizations\u201d that provoke clashes so they can film and exploit them online for money. Their ultimate goal is to undermine Israeli claims to the West Bank, he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe happen to be in the front of a battle to undermine the legitimacy of the state of Israel,\u201d said Berkowitz. \u201cPeople here are trying to bring up their children in peace. They don\u2019t wake up and think, \u2018How are we going to beat up an Arab today?\u2019\u2009\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Part of a larger strategy<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Not everyone in Prime Minister Naftali Bennett\u2019s coalition, which spans much of Israel\u2019s political spectrum, has joined in denouncing the settler violence. Many declined to attend a parliamentary conference on the issue Monday, leading to complaints from their left-leaning partners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cTheir silence and lack of interest is tantamount to the endorsement and encouragement of continued violence,\u201d said Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, who leads the leftist Meretz party, according to the Haaretz newspaper.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Opposition lawmakers, meanwhile, expressed outrage that government officials would blame Israeli settlers, asserting that Palestinian violence against Israelis is the more serious problem.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Itamar Ben Gvir<\/a>, head of the far-right Religious Zionist party, disrupted the conference by noting that a Palestinian gunman had fatally shot a Jewish tour guide<\/a> a day earlier in Jerusalem\u2019s Old City. \u201cA man was killed yesterday and you are holding a conference on settler violence, are you stupid?\u201d he shouted before being escorted from the room, according to an account in the Jerusalem Post.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Jewish human rights groups have dismissed the prospect that government attention to the violence would have any lasting effect.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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They say settler violence is part an overall strategy of expanding Israel\u2019s presence in the Palestinian territories by making life difficult for those who have lived there for generations. This government-sanctioned approach, these groups say, includes designating swaths of land as military training grounds, routinely denying construction permits to Palestinians and demolishing their unapproved buildings, and restricting Palestinian access to water and power networks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThis violence is not random; it serves Israel\u2019s interest,\u201d said Hagai El-Ad, head of the Israeli activist group B\u2019Tselem. \u201cExcuse me for being underwhelmed that the minister of defense is willing to convene a meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Jerusalem Bureau Chief Steve Hendrix has reported from many countries and most states since joining the <\/em>Post in 2000. Education: University of Georgia, BA; American University, MA. Steve came from the world of magazine freelancing and has written for just about every section of the paper.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Shira Rubin contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – washingtonpost.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

29 Nov 2021 – Israeli settlers have dramatically increased their attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank over recent months, with violent incidents up about 150 percent in the past two years, according to data presented by the Israeli military at a defense ministry meeting this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":200452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[2221,120,1030,87,267,1029,487,2395,2414,2415,2416,771,1027,2417,85,2418,109,287,1572,985,880,292,70,126,1025,886],"class_list":["post-200450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide","tag-checkpoints","tag-conflict","tag-fatah","tag-gaza","tag-geopolitics","tag-hamas","tag-human-rights","tag-international-criminal-court-icc","tag-israeli-apartheid","tag-israeli-army","tag-israeli-occupation","tag-nakba","tag-oslo-accords","tag-palestine-israel-apartheid-wall","tag-palestine-israel","tag-palestinian-rights","tag-politics","tag-power","tag-settlers","tag-social-justice","tag-state-terrorism","tag-un","tag-usa","tag-violence","tag-west-bank","tag-zionism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":264118,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200450\/revisions\/264118"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}