Just this past weekend, a group of settlers rampaged through at least six different locations near Jenin and Nablus, setting fire to homes and cars and viciously beating anyone who tried to stand in their way. This is only the latest in a string of attacks by settlers and soldiers alike that, this year alone, has claimed the lives of 25 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the United Nations.
When the public and media are focused on rockets, sirens, and military strikes, these acts of terror can occur almost invisibly, and often without any national scrutiny whatsoever. Violent settlers have gained confidence under the veil of war, and clearly believe that they will not face any consequences for their crimes. They attack with a messianic zealotry that is actively encouraged by members of Netanyahu’s coalition.
But we refuse to let these horrific attacks simply become the ambient background noise of daily life. Every single attack is a stain on Israel’s moral consciousness and every victim’s story matters.
Israelis need to know, first and foremost, what is being done in their name in the West Bank before they can take action. That’s why NIF and our grantees are working to ensure that settler violence is documented in detail and made public wherever and whenever it occurs.
This is part of a larger strategy that includes protective presence by activists on the ground, legal battles in court, and so much more to combat settler violence in both the day-to-day, and at its root: the military occupation of millions of Palestinians that empowers the most radical elements of Jewish Israeli society.
Last month, NIF grantee and former NIFC partner Yesh Din, an organization that investigates and reports on human rights violations in the West Bank, released a new report, “Settlers in Uniform: Violence Against Palestinians by Israelis in Military Uniforms.” The report focuses on one particularly insidious trend: the blurring of the lines between civilian and soldier among settlers in the West Bank. Increasingly, Palestinians report being confronted by local security coordinators or off-duty reservists in uniform operating outside of their mandate.
Often, these “civilian-soldiers,” as the report calls them, are indistinguishable from active duty IDF personnel and are armed with military-grade weapons. They leverage the appearance of authority to harass, threaten, and intimidate local communities. While this phenomenon is not new, the report demonstrates the way that the practice has become common-place.
“Blurred lines between the civilian and military spheres in Israel are intrinsic to the enmeshment of the country’s military with its civilian population,” the report writes. “However, in the West Bank, where a regime of control and oppression of one national group over another is in place, this obfuscation is deliberate, and it produces a destructive reality for the Palestinian population in the occupied territory.”
At NIFC, we see it as critical that Israelis who send their children to the army, and who pay taxes know how enmeshed the army has become with the project of these extremist settlers.
Another way that the global NIF network and its partners are pushing Israelis to see and confront the reality of life for Palestinians in the West Bank is via social media. Mehazkim, an NIF grantee that uses digital platforms to advance peace and democracy in Israel, posts political commentary and reports about settler violence for an Israeli audience. In a recent post, Member of Knesset Gilad Kariv called on the IDF Chief-of-Staff to protect Palestinian farmers who are unable to access their land due to harassment by extremist settlers. Their joint post garnered over 2,000 views in just a few days.
NIFC will continue to work alongside our partners to expose settler terror, keep the Israeli public informed, and protect vulnerable communities.