Settler Violence Happens, On Camera and Off

Earlier this week, an unarmed Palestinian was shot in the head by an Israeli from the settlement of Yitzhar in Nablus when a group of settlers, accompanied by soldiers from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), attacked the village of Asira al-Qibliya. Though horrific, it’s actually nothing new. B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights group who released the video and who regularly records incidents of violence in the Palestinian territories, said the occurrence itself was not unusual; what was unusual was actually having cameras there this time to record it.

The news story spread like wildfire. Although settler attacks on Palestinians occur nearly every day (and many accompanied by the IDF), they rarely make it to international headlines, let alone with this ferocity.  Why the difference with this story? News sites state it’s because of the direct video evidence of the attack and the apparent audacity “that the soldiers present did not act to prevent the settlers from throwing stones and firing live ammunition at the Palestinians.”

This explanation holds no ground. Just three days later, another video was released showing a settler, with IDF soldiers standing by idly, violently confronting Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills. Unsurprisingly, this story was not caught on by high-profile international media, despite its similarities to the video released Saturday.

The Palestine Center released a report on settler violence in February with data from 2004 – 2011 which makes Saturday’s incident that much easier to understand in the perspective of years of perpetual attacks by aggressive Israeli settlers.

In the report, we see that the extent and frequency with which settler violence is perpetrated intensifies with every passing year. Not only has the total amount of incidents per year increased, but settler violence particularly in Nablus (home to the shooter in this week’s incident) has escalated in the past two years to such a degree that now the most attacks per year occur in Nablus, two or three times that of any other governorate.* Indeed, Yitzhar perpetrated more attacks against Palestinian villagers than any other Israeli settlement in our data, making it the most violent settlement in the occupied territories.

According to B’Tselem, the attack on Asira al-Qibliya on Saturday began with settlers from Yitzhar lighting fields on fire and throwing stones at houses and residents. Stone throwing and arson are two of the top tactics chosen by violent settlers, as shown in our report. Even when this particular event escalated to live fire, the settlers were using a tactic employed by five percent of other attackers in 2011.

As for the rationalization behind this particular incident, the spokesperson for the Yitzhar settlement said that the settlers had traveled to Asira al-Qibliya to put out fires he said were started by Palestinians, and then had only fired shots from their M-16s when their lives and those of the soldiers ‘guarding’ them were threatened by young Palestinian stone-throwers. Though the videos of the incident from two different angles reveal a different narrative, our report also indicates that most incidents of settler violence are NOT positively tied to incidents of Palestinian violence.

And with the international community up in arms over the recorded passivity and complied consent of the IDF in this one incident of settler violence against Palestinians, we remind the world that over 90 percent of all villages facing multiple instances of settler violence are located in areas under Israeli security jurisdiction. Settlers perpetrating violence against Palestinians and their property know they are not likely to face any punitive action from the Israeli authorities for their crimes, so they choose to attack villages under Israeli authority. In this case, the settlers chose to fire at unarmed Palestinians in full view of soldiers from the IDF with complete faith that there would be no interventions or repercussions for their actions. Not only does the IDF fail to protect Palestinians from violent settlers, but it also offers complicity by accompanying settlers on their violent hateful tirades. It is Israeli government inaction and not actions that allowed this and other acts of settler violence to occur.

The IDF and the Israeli government must protect Palestinian civilians in the territories it occupies, must act to prevent settler violence as it occurs, and must immediately, thoroughly and credibly investigate this and other instances of Israeli settler violence with appropriate sentences adjudicated. If not, the news media will only see more and more cases of extreme settler violence against unarmed Palestinians.

Let’s see if the next time a Palestinian is shot on camera if it will even make the news ticker, let alone headlines.

*except for Hebron, which it surpasses by 25 percent

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