Settler Attacks: Video & Data

I presented our data on Israeli Settler Violence earlier today at the Palestine Center. A video is already available below and a transcript should be available soon. The data, included in this power point presentation below, is the most important thing.

Here are a few of the important points to take away from the presentation:

1. This is happening throughout the West Bank. Yes, it is concentrated more in some areas than others, but no governorate of the West Bank is immune to settler attacks.

2. Incidents are on the rise as are casualties.

3. 90% of these attacks happen in areas where Israel is responsible for security under the Oslo Accords. Under international law, Israel is responsible for the well-being of civilians in the territory it occupies. Instead of protecting them however, IDF and Israeli police often act as protectors for settlers as they attack Palestinian civilians.

4. While 2/3s of all settlements in the West Bank have been involved in attacks in the period we analyzed (Jan. 1, 2009 - Aug. 30, 2010) 7 settlements are responsible for 50% of attacks where the settlement of origin is known (about 27% of cases)

5. Violence is shifting north towards Nablus, Qalqilya and Ramallah and arson is becoming an increasingly popular tactic in those areas.

6. Vulnerable targets and villages are often located next to main roads. The main roads between Nablus, Qalqilya and Salfit continue to be gauntlets of violence.

7. Violence seems to be motivated in part by responses to macro level issues and not local disputes. There is a significant increase (22%), for example, in the number of attacks per week in the period after the announcement of the "settlement freeze."

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