Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians spike to 210 so far this year, says UN

A rise in attacks comes amid a stalled peace process and political turbulence for Israelis and Palestinians

A Palestinian protester argues with Israeli security forces as he protests against Israeli settlement building activities on their land in the village of West Bank Yatta, near Hebron. EPA

UN investigators on Wednesday warned of a spike in attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in recent months, saying the aggressors too often eluded justice.

Michael Lynk and other UN human rights experts described 771 such attacks by Israeli settlers last year and more than 210 recorded incidents in the first three months of this year, including one that left a Palestinian dead.

“We call upon the Israeli military and police to investigate and prosecute these violent acts with vigour and resolve,” Mr Lynk and two other investigators said in a statement.

Israeli settler attacks last year resulted in injuries to 133 Palestinians and damage to 184 vehicles and nearly 10,000 trees, mostly around the population centres of Hebron, Jerusalem, Nablus and Ramallah.

“They primarily target the livelihoods of rural Palestinians, vandalising livestock, agricultural lands, trees and homes,” the experts said.

“Besides the presence and expansion of Israeli settlements, which are intended to establish illegal claims for Israeli sovereignty, settler violence is meant to make the daily lives of Palestinians untenable.”

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  Palestinian protesters wave flags as Israeli troops take position during a protest against Jewish settlements in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah. Reuters

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  Now that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has secured a new term in office, there’s little to prevent him from annexing large parts of the West Bank as early as this summer. AP

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  An Israeli soldier stands guard during a tour made by Israeli parliament members in the Jordan Valley near the Jewish settlement of Maale Efrayim. Reuters

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  Israeli soldiers take position as Palestinian demonstrators gather during a protest against expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. AP

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  King Abdullah (r) of Transjordan on May 13, 1948 in Amman with Abed Al Rahman Azzam, the secretary general of the Arab League and Abd Al Elah Ibn Ali, the Prince Regent of Iraq, the day before the beginning of the first Arab-Israeli War. AFP

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  Palestinians surrender to Israeli soldiers in June 1967 in the occupied territory of the West Bank after Israel launched a pre-emptive attack on Egypt and Syria and seized the Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights in Syria as well as the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem. AFP

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  A Palestinian child plays in a refugee camp in Jordan on June 23, 1967. AFP

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  PLO chairman Yasser Arafat delivers a speech to the Palestine National Council meeting to make the historic proclamation of a Palestinian state in the Israeli-occupied territories and to recognize Israel in the Palace of Nations conference hall on November 12, 1988, in Algiers. AFP

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  US President Bill Clinton stands between PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzahk Rabin as they shake hands for the first time on September 13, 1993 at the White House. AFP

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  Hussein Ibn Talal, King of Jordan and Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin shake hands after they exchanged the documents of the Peace Treaty at Beit Gabriel conference centre on November 10, 1994 on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee. AFP

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  Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during the Palestinian leadership meeting and threatened to end security coordination with Israel and the United States, saying Israeli annexation would ruin chances for peace. AFP

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  Houses in the Israeli settlement of settlement of Kedumim are seen in the foreground as part of the Palestinian city of Nablus is seen in the background (far left) in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Reuters

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  Israel's controversial concrete barrier (C) separating the Jewish settlement of Neve Yaakov (foreground) in the northern part of east Jerusalem and the Palestinian area of al-Ram (background) in the occupied West Bank. AFP

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  An Israeli activist holds a banner during a protest against the US peace plan for the Middle East, in front of the US ambassador's residence in Jerusalem, on May 15, 2020, as Palestinians commemorate the 72nd anniversary of the 1948 Nakba or "catastrophe". AFP

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  A Palestinian shepherd tends to his camels on arid land considered to be in "Area C" (under Israeli security and administrative control), southeast of Yatta town in the southern West Bank district of Hebron. AFP

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  A general view of the Israeli settlement of Elon Moreh, as seen from the Palestinian village of Azmout near the West Bank City of Nablus. EPA

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  The West Bank Jewish settlement of Maale Michmash. AP

Last month in southern Hebron, a Palestinian couple with eight children was attacked by 10 Israeli settlers, some of them armed, in an incident that left the adults needing medical treatment and the children traumatised, the experts said.

More than 70 families in Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem are currently under threat of forced eviction to make way for new settler homes, the experts added.

“We are deeply worried by the atmosphere of impunity in which these attacks are taking place,” the experts said.

“In many cases, the Israeli military has been present, or nearby, and has not taken sufficient steps to protect the Palestinians from this violence.”

The officials behind the report were Mr Lynk, a special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, a special rapporteur on adequate housing and non-discrimination, and independent expert Claudia Mahler.

Israel's mission to the UN did not immediately answer The National's request for comment.

The spike in settler attacks comes as peace talks between the two sides in a decades-old struggle have ground to a halt and uncertainty on the political horizon for both peoples.

Palestinians are readying to hold long-delayed elections, while in Israel four elections in two years have not yielded a stable government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on trial for corruption.

The Palestinians seek an independent state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, all territory captured by Israel in 1967. Most countries view Israeli settlements as illegal.

Israel and some Israeli settler groups cite biblical and historical links to the land.