Attacks by Israeli settlers on the illegally occupied West Bank are not new. They occur regularly, causing extensive damage to the Palestinian people and their land, and proving fatal in far too many instances. More than 1,000 attacks across the West Bank this year have involved settlers, according to the UN.
And yet, most often, apart from mild international condemnation, there is no reckoning or accountability for Israel’s sponsorship of such terror.
In recent weeks, since the ceasefire was announced in Gaza, these routine damnable acts of violence have increased in frequency, with few arrests. This is the case even as Israeli troops was last week instructed by a military commander in the West Bank to “act as much as possible” to prevent violence by settlers. More often than not, however, over decades, there has been too strong a whiff of enablement by the Israeli army and the state that stems from country’s perceived claim on the land.
Just last week, masked settlers burnt Palestinian villages, vandalised a mosque, set fire to it, and also set cars ablaze. An Israeli organisation that monitors settlements and violence in the West Bank recognised the heinousness of the situation. Lior Amihai, executive director of Peace Now, said “settler terror is breaking records” currently.
According to the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, there were 260 attacks in October, the highest since OCHA began keeping a record of such incidents – implying an average of eight incidents a day. Violent settlers haven’t shied away from wielding sticks to bludgeon Palestinians and slingshots to attack farmers harvesting olives, not sparing even the women.
This rising lawlessness, whatever the convictions of Israeli extremists, is doing no favours to Israel’s image globally. It is an illegally occupying presence in the West Bank and it shouldn’t be there. That is the contention of much of the international community. Yet, the difference between naming an atrocity and collectively seeking an end to it seems vast. That is the gap that needs to be significantly narrowed by increasing the diplomatic push on Israel to end settler violence - and to stop taking lands rightfully owned by Palestinians.
It is clear that to this end, routine condemnation has proved sorely inadequate. Pressure must be exerted through sanctions, and not merely against a handful of settlers – as former US president Joe Biden did – but against those who enable the violence.
Settler violence is not the winning long-term strategy that the more extreme members of Israel’s governments might think it is. Repeated violent attacks by settlers further undermine Israel as a state.
But Israeli security forces seem unable, unwilling or complicit in reining in violent extremists while their only conceivable Palestinian security partner, the Palestinian Authority, is sidelined.
Even as much of the world is understandably focused on ensuring that the Gaza ceasefire is sustained and an enduring peace takes root, the chances of that happening are slim if anarchy in the West Bank is left to worsen.
