Settler violence against Palestinians: “Atmosphere of fear” in the West Bank

Since the October 7 Hamas attack, Israeli settlers have become increasingly determined to seize territory in the West Bank. Many now have weapons and carry themselves with the authority of soldiers.

Khirbet ‘An a-Rashash is, or rather: was, a Palestinian town in the Jordan Valley, in the occupied West Bank. Around 85 people from 18 families lived here from their sheep. After the terrorist attack from the Gaza Strip on Israel on October 7th, things became increasingly difficult for the people here: radical settlers from the area kept coming by, targeting their land.

People were subjected to regular violence. Sometimes the settlers came to the town and destroyed windows, sometimes they beat people. On October 9th, settlers blocked the road to the town, preventing the residents of Khirbet ‘Ein a-Rashash and their animals from accessing water. On October 13th, the women and children were the first to leave the town. On October 16th, the men with around 1,500 sheep. They have given in to violence – as have the residents of 16 other Palestinian towns since October 7th.

Israeli human rights organizations and the United Nations (UN) have documented numerous cases of settler violence that have led to more than 1,000 Palestinians being driven from their land.

Israel declares land to be “state land”

The towns belong to the so-called C area. This includes more than 60 percent of the West Bank. Israel has full control here, based on the Oslo Accords. This means that the Israeli military and Israeli police monitor security and the State of Israel decides on a building permit. In the 1990s, the plan was for Areas C to be part of a Palestinian state within five years. That never happened.

Instead, facts are being created that make the establishment of a Palestinian state increasingly unlikely: the expansion of the more than 130 Israeli settlements has accelerated in recent years. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has just approved the construction of an additional 3,500 apartments.

In addition, Israel has been depriving Palestinians of use of large areas in the C areas for decades by declaring them so-called “state land.” These are usually areas that are declared as military training areas, nature reserves or as particularly archaeologically valuable. Numerous houses have been and are being demolished here and people are being displaced.

Almost seven percent of West Bank

A relatively new phenomenon, however, are radical settlers who establish agricultural outposts and bring large areas under their control with the help of herds of sheep. In some cases they do this on the areas designated as “state land” – but increasingly also beyond this, including on private Palestinian land.

Dror Etkes, who works for an Israeli human rights organization, documents this new form of land grabbing using maps. To do this, he compares aerial photos, uses administrative data and witness statements – and travels a lot in the West Bank himself. There are now 77 of these agricultural outposts, he says – according to his calculations, settlers now control more than 35,000 hectares, or more than six percent of the entire West Bank.

The vast majority of these outposts were founded in recent years. The land grab goes hand in hand with further displacement of Palestinians, says Dor Etkes: “It is important to understand that violence is part of the approach.” In this way, the settlers ensured that there were no longer any Palestinians in the area around their farms.

“Army consists of settlers”

This has accelerated since October 7th. While numerous cases have been documented in which Israeli security forces do not intervene in acts of violence against Palestinians, the attacks now have a new quality, also because radical settlers are now sometimes wearing soldier’s uniforms themselves. This is what Jehuda Shaul says, who was once deployed as a soldier in the West Bank, then founded the organization “Breaking the Silence” and is now one of the most prominent critics of the Israeli occupation: “Since October 7th, settlers have been the soldiers, the army has existed from the settlers. In this war, the real soldiers, the better trained and equipped ones, have been transferred from the West Bank to Gaza and the border with Lebanon. And the reservists are serving in the West Bank.”

What this means in effect is that “the same violent, sometimes convicted criminal settlers who six or seven months ago beat up Palestinian communities and drove them off the land where they live are now doing so in uniform and with rifles – with full authority. “

USA and EU sanction settlers

Human rights organizations have documented numerous cases of violence by these settler soldiers. Also a team of ARD has already been threatened. The settlers can feel supported in their actions by right-wing extremist parts of the Israeli government: Itamar Ben Gvir, Minister for National Security, and Bezalel Smotrich, the Finance Minister who is also responsible for settlement construction, themselves come from the radical settler movement and support it politically. In the West Bank, for example, after October 7th distributed thousands of weapons to settler militias.

The USA has now imposed sanctions against seven violent settlers, and other countries such as Great Britain and France have joined in. The EU has now also decided on sanctions.

One of the settlers on the US sanctions list is Yinon Levi, who runs the “Meitarim Farm” in the hills south of Hebron. Yehuda Shaul says Levi, along with another outpost, displaced five Palestinian communities in the area – including by force.

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