ScarJo, BDS and the Economic Impact of Israeli Settlements

By now you have likely heard about the controversy over Hollywood star Scarlett Johannson and her love triangle between SodaStream, a company that manufactures products in an Israeli settlement and Oxfam, an international NGO that opposes settlements. The contradiction is obvious and for anyone still unclear, this info-graphic is helpful.

But one of the most pernicious responses in this debate from the anti-BDS crowd has been to claim that such a boycott would hurt Palestinian workers employed at SodaStream's factory in the illegal Israeli colony of Mishor Adumim. The long and dark history of colonialism is littered with this sort of thing. Some Europeans justified the treatment of Native Americans because they were "civilizing" them. We witnessed similar arguments in more recent periods of colonialism in Africa, for example. The notion that systems of oppression can be justified because of the limited and perceived gains that they may afford to a few while dispossessing them and most of their kin in a variety of other ways is not new.

Yes, a Palestinian working in a settlement may not otherwise have a job. Unemployment in the West Bank is above 20%. That the settlements and the system they are part of reinforce the economic realities that force Palestinians into choosing working within the very system that oppresses them.

Many Palestinians are confronted with the choice of seeking livelihood within this system or having no livelihood to speak of. This is a reflection of the captive labor market dynamics of the occupation. Palestinians should have the choice to work for and within their own independent economy but they don't. That is the problem here and it is a problem that is created, enforced and supported by Israeli settlements.

Yes, a small number of Palestinians may derive their livelihood from work on a settlement, but a much more significant number is suffering because of these settlements. To use the former to justify the later is absurd and yet it is precisely what Sodastream and the anti-BDS chorus has done in this case.

How do Israeli settlements impact the Palestinian Economy? The list is long and devastating but here are a few of the ways.

Land Confiscation - "Since the beginning of the occupation", notes this Btselem report, "Israel has taken control of hundreds of thousands of dunam [four dunam = 1 acre] throughout the West Bank, with the primary objective of establishing settlements and providing reserves of land for their expansion. It has done this by means of a complex legal-bureaucratic mechanism whose central element is the declaration and registration of land as "state land." In addition, Israel uses three complementary methods to seize control of land: requisition for military needs, declaration of land as abandoned property and the expropriation of land for public needs. In addition, Israel has also helped its Jewish citizens to purchase land on the free market for the purpose of establishing new settlements.67 Using these methods, Israel has seized control of some fi fty percent of the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem" 

Restriction on Movement - "The establishment of Israeli settler-only roads and military zones" says Oxfam in this report on the Jordan Valley,  "means that many Palestinian farmers throughout the Jordan Valley are not able to access their farms. Tractors and other equipment are often confiscated, while herders are prevented from grazing their animals, which are often impounded for straying into a military zone. Palestinian herders must also buy wheat or barley to feed their herds, because they do not have access to their pastures.76 These significant additional costs incurred due to restrictions on access and movement are stifling production and driving many Palestinian households further into poverty. 

Restriction on Access- This World Bank report talks about the impact of Area C of the West Bank which is where all the settlements are located and is off limits to Palestinians: "Area C constitutes 61 percent of the West Bank and is the only contiguous land connecting 227 smaller separate and heavily residential areas. The 1993 Oslo Peace Accords stipulated that Area C be gradually transferred to the Palestinian Authority (PA) by 1998. This transfer has never taken place....With growth of approximately six percent annually needed to absorb new entrants to the labor market, let alone making a dent in the soaring rate of youth unemployment, urgent attention is needed to find ways to grow the economy and create jobs. A vital economy is essential for citizen well-being, social stability and building confidence to underpin the challenging political negotiations. However, the Palestinian economy, which currently relies on donor financed consumption and suffers from ongoing stagnation of the private sector, is unsustainable. The report estimates that if businesses and farms were permitted to develop in Area C, this would add as much as 35 percent to the Palestinian GDP. Freeing economic activity in Area C would have a particularly high impact on the development of businesses in agriculture and Dead Sea minerals exploitation, stone mining and quarrying, construction, tourism, and telecommunications. Other sectors would be able to benefit from improvements in the quality and cost of infrastructure and increased demand for goods and services. The volume of increased economic activity would greatly improve the PA’s fiscal position. It is estimated that government revenues would increase by US$800 million, which would cut the fiscal deficit by half, hence reduce the need for donor support, and reduce unemployment and poverty rates." 

Resource Usurpation- "For four decades",  states Amnesty International in this report, "Israeli military orders issued ostensibly to “protect” nature resources and reserves, including water resources, have had a crippling impact on Palestinian agricultural activities throughout the West Bank, while Israeli settlers, during the same period, have been given virtually unlimited access to water supplies to develop and irrigate the large farms which help to support unlawful Israeli settlements." 

Settler Violence - "Settler violence" says this recent UN OCHA special focus case study "has severely undermined the livelihoods of many families in this area, contributing to the relocation of some people in search of better livelihood opportunities elsewhere, including abroad. Those who continue to farm incur financial losses, partly because of difficulties in cultivating their land consistently, and because of the damage to their property or theft of their crops by settlers, in which case they lose both the money invested as well as the potential earnings from selling the crops."

There really is no debate about the impact of settlements on the Palestinian economy. The impact is devastating, in large part because of the reasons listed above. Anyone arguing settlements have had anything but a negative impact on Palestinians and their economy is either misinformed or disingenuous or both. Sodastream is part of this system and this system has done exponentially more to hurt Palestinians than anything else. 

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More Zionist than the Zionists

There she goes again. Isabel Kershner's report on what happened when Israeli settlers attempted to attack a Palestinian village is quite something. This story was widely reported in Israeli and Palestinian media.

First, some background.

Basically, as it has happened many times before, Israeli settlers from a colony in the West Bank attempted to attack Palestinians in their villages and destroy their property.

This is sometimes done as a "price tag" attack, which is when Israeli settlers exact a price against Palestinians in the rare instances when the Israeli government limits the expansion of, or dismantles, Israeli settlement structures. Most settler violence, however, is a product of an unequal system of laws that protects and privileges Israeli settlers against Palestinians, providing both the physical infrastructure and the impunity that incentivizes settler violence.

Israeli settler violence is a rampant phenomenon we have documented and studied extensively here at the Palestine Center. In 2012, we published a comprehensive report on Israeli settler violence and how, when and why it occurs covering thousands of events from 2004-2011. We will be producing an update soon to cover the years since then.

I've put together the map below to help you understand where things are located.

View Jalud/Esh Kodesh in a larger map

The Israeli colonies of Eli, Shilo, Shvut Rahel, Ahiya and Esh Kodesh are in blue (running counterclockwise starting from Eli) and the Palestinian villages of Karyut, Jalud and Kusra are in red. As you can see the Israeli colonies surround the Palestinian villages from the West and the South. This particular area is a hotbed of Israeli Settler Violence, in large part because of the geographic proximity and the fact that the Palestinian villages here are in Area B, not Area A where Palestinian security jurisdiction usually deters settlers from entering.

The most common type of settler attack in these villages is destruction of property. Some 40% of all attack types in our database for these three villages fall into that category. In yesterday's event, Israeli settlers from Esh Kodesh went into Jalud.

Here are some of the various headlines from Israeli media on the event:

From the left-leaning Haaretz: "Jewish Settlers Caught and Beaten After Trespassing in Palestinian Village"

From the popular Israeli tabloid Yideot Ahranot: "West Bank Palestinians say protected settlers from locals' revenge"

From the right-leaning Jerusalem Post: "Elder Palestinians protect settlers from lynching in West Bank village"

Yet here is the New York Times' headline: "Palestinians Corner Jewish Settlers During Clash in West Bank"

Let's try this another way by playing a game. Below are two excerpts of the first four paragraphs from different stories describing the same events:

Excerpt 1:

A confrontation between a group of Jewish settlers and Palestinian villagers in the West Bank on Tuesday ended when Palestinian officials handed the settlers, who had been surrounded by other Palestinians, over to Israeli forces. 

The episode shined an unusual spotlight on the potentially explosive tensions in the area even as Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were underway.  

Scenes captured on video showed a group of more than a dozen male settlers, including minors, who had apparently been corralled by angry Palestinians in an unfinished building on the edge of the village of Jalud, near Nablus in the northern West Bank. Some of the settlers had bloodied faces.  

The settlers said they had been hiking in the area. But Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official who monitors settlement activities in the northern West Bank, said they had come to uproot olive trees and clashed with Palestinians who confronted them in the fields among the villages of Qaryut, Jalud and Qusra.

Photos accompanying this story show bloodied settlers cowering before Palestinians surrounding them, being cornered by rock throwing Palestinians and being manhandled as well. Reading the headline, the story and the seeing the images, you are left under the impression that it was Palestinians who were the aggressors in this clash and not the settlers.

Excerpt 2:

Some 15 settlers from Esh Kodesh placed themselves in life-threatening danger on Tuesday as a result of provocative decision on their part to enter the Palestinian village of Jallud, adjacent to Ramallah.  

Residents began to riot and it was only thanks to several village officials and elders that the settlers escaped from the incident with their lives. Villagers accused the settlers, ages 15 to 30, of throwing rocks at farmers tending their fields, shattering the windows of a local home and assaulting three residents.  

Village officials and elders attempted to contain the situation. According to reports, six Palestinian men shielded the settlers with their bodies against what quickly grew into an angry mob, and were able to hold the settlers in an uninhabited structure on the outskirts of the village until Israel Defense Forces troops arrived.

The IDF said the settlers, all known right-wing activists, entered the village with the clear intent of carrying out a "price-tag" attack.

Photos accompanying this story include images of bloodied settlers but also include images of Palestinians protecting settlers, of Israeli soldiers removing the settlers and of a Palestinian victim of Israeli settler violence.

The first excerpt is ambiguous as to who is responsible and presents the situation as a he said/he said dispute. It does not even clearly identify that Jalud, the village the settlers entered, is a Palestinian village. It notes that among the dozen settlers there were minors and all were "corralled by angry Palestinians" setting up a dichotomy between the innocent and the aggressor.

The second excerpt starts by placing blame on the Israeli settlers for entering Jalud, which it clearly says is a Palestinian village. It notes that some Palestinians protected the settlers from what could have been greater violence. Finally, it says the Israeli military said the settlers were all "known right-wing activists" that intended to carry out a "price-tag" attack.

Now, can you guess which of these excerpts is from the New York Times and which one is from the right-wing, pro-Netanyahu rag funded by Sheldon Adelson, Israel Hayom?

Yup, it has gotten THAT bad.

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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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Dramatic Spike in Settler Violence Sadly Predictable

For the past 18 months we've been working at the Palestine Center to analyze Israeli settler violence against Palestinian civilians and their property. We've put together the most comprehensive database of Israeli settler violence available and continue to add data to our records. In April of this year we presented an analysis covering the period of September 2004-February 2011, and at the time I noted an dramatic trend:

The important news is this. A very strong, noticeable increase in Israeli settler violence over the past five years, and mind you 2011 is on pace to beat 2010. We started with an extremely violent two months of 2011 and it shows no indication of slowing down.

And it didn't slow down. Now, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in the Occupied Territories is reporting a major increase in violence:

Settler-related incidents resulting in Palestinian injuries and damage to property are up by 57 percent this year, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which documents violence in the Palestinian territories...

Palestinians have been injured by settlers this year at double the rate of 2010... So far this year, 178 Palestinians have been stoned, run down or shot at by settlers, compared to a total of 176 for the whole of 2010. Three Palestinians have been killed by settlers this year.

It seems like we were right. The troubling part is that, when you study settler violence over time you realize that the most dramatic spike that comes on an annual basis is during the olive harvest season -- at the end of October. With a 57% increase in violence by July, the number of violent incidents against Palestinian civilians may well double last year's numbers.

The entire presentation is available here and you can also read through a number of posts we have authored on settler violence focusing on various aspects including, the Israeli state's failure to properly punish perpetrators of settler violence, how Palestinian livestock is threatened, how Hebron is ground zero for settler violence, how the media fails to cover settler violence and the use of different tactics by settlers like vehicular attacks and arson.

Interestingly, from 2006-2011 we have only seen increases in settler violence with each year topping the previous one. In fact, in the 5 years from 2006-2010 we have seen a 152% increase in settler violence incidents. During the same period of time, as reported recently by Obama administration officials to the Congress, "terrorist violence" from the West Bank is down 96%.

With such an inverse relationship between the numbers (and keep in mind settler violence doesn't include other methods of violence used against Palestinians by the occupation, mostly by the IDF) Palestinians have every reason to question who is really benefiting from PA-Israel security cooperation. The answer is simple and the numbers don't lie; it is definitely NOT the Palestinians.

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Israeli Settlers Make My Point

Yesterday we presented an analysis of data covering several years worth of Israeli settler violence and approximately 3,000 instances of attacks. We presented numbers, graphs, pictures and video of attacks that were both statistically and analytically solid. Yet, despite the fact that this research took months and that it will continue to serve as an important resource on this issue, Israeli settlers yesterday made my point in only a few hours.

You see, by the time I was done with the presentation, which can be seen in its entirety below, I came back to my desk only to find an e-mail about how Israeli settlers attacked school children in the village of Tuwani in the Hebron governorate. I spoke specifically about the perils facing this particular Palestinian village at 25 minutes in. So it came as no surprise to me that Palestinian school children had rocks thrown at them by Israeli settler children as the settler parents watched. This is a regular occurrence for the school children of Tuwani, so much so in fact, that special escorts have to be arranged to take them to and from school out of fear of settler attacks.

One of the main points of the presentation was that settler violence happens all the time even though we might not hear about it. You might think that the instance of settler violence in Tuwani on the same day as this presentation is enough to prove that point, but in case there was any doubt, colonists in the north of the West Bank had other things on their mind.

That's right, yet another settler attack took place against the Palestinian village of Burin, right around the time we were making this presentation. At about 28 minutes in I discuss the village of Burin and why it falls prey to more settler violence than any other Palestinian village. It is located in between two of the most violent colonies in the West Bank, Yitzhar and Bracha.

Settler violence, contrary to what many may believe, is not retaliatory nor is it simply a response to Israeli government actions against outposts which have been called "price tag" events. It is a symptom of occupation. The stratification of security jurisdiction created by the Oslo accords allows settlers to have free reign over Palestinian populations living in Areas B and C. We see upwards of 90% of all settler violence incidents occuring in these areas precisely because there is no law enforcement deterrent to acts of violence against Palestinian civilians. As you can see from the chart above, settler violence is dramatically on the rise over the past few years. In 2006 the average number of settler violence events per month was about 20; in 2010 it nearly tripled, with just over 57 per month.

Our event yesterday was an attempt to sound the alarm on a violent phenomenon which is targeting Palestinian civilians and their property more and more each year. The violent settlers which attacked Palestinians in Burin and Tuwani yesterday only help make this point.

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You Have The Right To Remain Occupied

Last week a number of white students were found dead in a dorm room at Columbia University in New York. The police arrived on the scene and the mayor soon declared that he would stop at nothing to find the black murderer. Shortly thereafter, the army was called in and the neighboring Harlem neighborhood, where it was claimed the alleged perpetrator must have came from or fled to, was encircled and besieged. Raids were conducted in each apartment and home, dwellings were ransacked and property destroyed. Hundreds of blacks were detained, many were DNA tested and finger printed. This continued for a month, day in and day out, but no charges were made against any suspects.

If you haven't already guessed, this is a fictional story. Such things should never occur in a functioning democracy with rule of law, civil rights and due process. But something very similar is happening to a Palestinian village called Awarta at the hands of a state that claims to be "the only democracy in the Middle East."

Nearly a month ago, a family of 5 Israeli colonists living in Itamar were found murdered in their home. The gruesome attack was immediately blamed on a Palestinian, and the nearby village of Awarta fell under the cross-hairs. The Israeli government has yet to put forward one shred of evidence that would suggest anything about the identity of the murderer. We are simply supposed to rely on the good intentions of the Israeli government. (Map right shows Itamar and Awarta)

The entire investigation has been under a gag order. This is very, very strange. Ever under the international microscope for their actions against Palestinians in Occupied Territory, the Israeli government has always put forward aggressive PR campaigns in an attempt to justify their actions and vilify Palestinians and their sympathizers. One easily recalls the tapes and images so rapidly distributed after Israeli commandos boarded a Gaza-bound civilian aid ship in international waters last year killing nine civilians. For a state whose government has suffered one PR disaster after the other, you'd think that if there was any evidence showing the murderer was Palestinian, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be screaming about it atop the tallest building in Tel Aviv.

Yet, nothing but complete silence. Silence, of course, except for the Palestinians in the village of Awarta. Constant Israeli raids round up Palestinian civilians in what can only be understood as arbitrary arrests. The terrorizing of an entire village, held hostage to Israeli whims, is collective punishment and a regular feature of occupation.

This is occupation. A people are treated fundamentally differently and stripped of their rights because of their ethnicity. Yet while the media in the land of the free and home of the brave certainly covered the murder of the Israeli settlers, quite poorly I might add, where is the news story about how Israel's massive arrest campaigns run contrary to American values? Where is the news story about arbitrary and forced DNA testing? Where is the story about how groups of people are arrested in the middle of the night, taken from their ransacked homes and then probably tortured and at the least intimidated to provide information implicating others in the village?

Murderers can be of any religion, nationality or ethnicity. But democracies are judged, at least in part, on their respect for civil rights and the rule of law. Israel's collective punishment of occupied Palestinians in Awarta are but another clear indication of where it fails the democracy test.

Today, there was news that a Palestinian teen was found dead in Al-Khadr. This Palestinian locality outside of Bethlehem has frequently been attacked by settlers. More often than not, the settlement of origin of settlers who attack Al-Khadr is near by Neve Daniel. In recent years there have been instances of destruction of property, assault, theft and arson perpetrated by settlers from Neve Daniel against Al-Khadr (much more on settler violence here). If this became a murder investigation, would the Israelis stand for the encirclement and collective punishment of their colony Neve Daniel? Would Israelis stand silent as every Jew in the colony was arrested by the IDF, DNA tested, and possibly coerced into testimony without ever being charged?

Of course not. But we will never have to worry about how Israelis would react to such a predicament, since the IDF would never apply the same inhumane treatment and roundups to Israeli settlers, whose mere presence in the West Bank is illegal, as they do to the native Palestinians whom they have completely stripped of their rights. Most of the time, Israeli settler violence goes unpunished while Palestinians are punished whether they attack or not. That is what occupation is all about.

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"Justice" is Served, Israeli Occupation Style

Meet Zvi Struck. Struck is an Israeli settler from a colonial outpost deep in the West Bank. He is, according to the Israeli court which convicted him, a perpetrator of Israeli settler violence. While it is not uncommon for Israeli settlers to commit acts of violence against Palestinian civilians -- and readers of this blog are well informed on this -- what is uncommon is that Zvi was actually arrested and brought before the Israeli justice system. The overwhelming majority of settler violence incidents are not investigated or prosecuted and often, if not always, happen with the direct or indirect involvement of Israeli occupation forces.

So what was Zvi's crime? The 28-year-old Struck had abducted a 15 year-old Palestinian child in 2007, then assaulted and beat the child before leaving him tied and naked in an open field. Who knows what else may have been done to this poor child, but one can only imagine that a naked and vulnerable child at the mercy of a criminal may also have been sexually assaulted. Similarly, one can also imagine that if that was the case, it would not be talked about by the victim or his family in a conservative Palestinian society where such things are taboo and can lead, unfortunately, to being ostracized from society.

And the time? Well over 3 years after the crime, an Israeli court has finally sentenced Struck to an 18-month jail term. Pending appeal, Struck will likely be one of the few Israeli settlers that do any time for their crimes against Palestinian civilians. It's important that this convicted criminal is punished for his actions, and one can only hope that the prosecution of settler crimes against Palestinians will happen regularly, as it should, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Still, does the time fit the crime? What would the sentence handed down by an Israeli court have been had the victim been an Israeli and not a Palestinian? The charges Struck was found guilty of were "battery under aggravated circumstances and kidnapping for the purpose of causing grave bodily injury." Does that sound like it deserves a mere 18-month sentence? I certainly don't think so.

But as I thought about this sentence, I realized the 18-month duration rang a bell.

Meet Adeeb Abu Rahma. Abu Rahma is a non-violent protest organizer in and around the Palestinian village of Bili'in, which is been affected by the encroaching apartheid wall. In 2009 Abu Rahma was arrested and was later sentenced to 18-months by an Israeli military court for "incitement." Much more on this here. The Abu Rahma family, dedicated leaders of the Palestinian non-violent movement and specifically the Bil'in popular committee against the wall, have paid a steep price for their peaceful protest. Adeeb and Abdallah Abu Rahma have been in and out of Israeli prisons, but Bassem Abu Rahma, who was killed by an Israeli tear gas canister, and Jawaher Abu Rahma, who also fell to Israeli tear gas, will never be able to return to their loved ones.

I've grown tired and frustrated of hearing people ask "Where are the Palestinian Gandhis?" As we watch revolutions around the Arab world, world leaders are criticizing states for cracking down against non-violent protesters. For non-violence to work, it relies on global non-silence. Yet, as the Israeli occupation is slowly killing off a family of Palestinian Gandhis and targeting others throughout Palestine, few dare to sound alarm.

In short, by juxtaposing these two cases and the Israeli court system's actions, we can learn a great deal about what "justice" means under Israeli occupation. As far as the occupation is concerned, non-violent Palestinians demonstrating against the illegal confiscation of their land are just as bad, if not worse, than an Israeli settler who commits a violent crime against a defenseless Palestinian child.

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Happy Birthday Deya, Rest In Peace

Dear Deya,

Facebook alerted me that today was your birthday. Happy Birthday. I had always wondered what happened to people's Facebook pages after their owners die. Yours stands as a testament to your all-too-short life and the amazing number of people you touched who are all wishing you happy birthday on your wall today - a year after you died.

Do you remember when we met? I do. It was at a Palestinian heritage event in New Jersey. The lovely host family you were staying with brought you to meet the Palestinian community in the area. That's when I learned about your situation and the Israeli settler's bullet that ripped through your 14 year-old body. I remember that night vividly, there were speakers and music and traditional Palestinian line dancing, or dabke. I remember the hesitation I felt joining the dabke line that night when I saw you across the room. You sat in your wheel chair looking at the dance floor just wishing you could walk again one day. It was impossible for me to dabke seeing this and I remember telling you that night that one day you would get better and join the dabke line again. We became good friends.

You did eventually get better, before you got worse. American doctors performed the numerous

surgeries you wouldn't be able to get in Palestine. Despite the settler's bullet which fractured inside you, partially tearing through your organs and lodging in your spine, the doctors performed miracles and you slowly made progress. The dream of joining the dabke line seemed like it may come true. Eventually, you were able to walk with a limp and as more time passed you slowly regained your stride. But little did we know about the toll all of this took on the organs inside your body. (Image right: Newspaper photo of Deya in one of the first of his many stays in a hospital)

You went back to Palestine and back to high school where you began what we thought would be a promising future despite the years of schooling you missed. You were in love with poetry - I recall you reciting it in classical Arabic as a teenager in the hospital's visitor's room. You loved to sing George Wassouf songs, learned to play the oud, and became an aspiring artist. Eventually you graduated and the teenage boy whose hopes had once been shattered by Israeli settler violence became a man with the world before him.

Soon, though, we heard the news. All the operations you went through couldn't prevent that settler's bullet from sealing your fate. We learned of your liver failing again and your speedy departure to Europe where you may have an opportunity for more surgery or even a transplant. But it was too much for your liver to handle. The last thing we heard was that your blood, unable to be filtered by your failing liver, contained 500 times more toxins than normal and was poisoning your body.

You died soon after, about a month before your 23rd birthday. We never got to dabke together.

They gave you a martyr's funeral in Palestine, even though you were not shot taking part in the resistance. You were merely born Palestinian and walking back from school that day. Which, I suppose, is form of resistance itself. (Image right: Deya, about a year before he died)

Your life, perhaps symbolizing the Palestinian struggle, was a roller coaster of hope and despair, ultimately ending in tragedy.

What happened to you opened my eyes though. As Palestinians, we had always heard and talked about the checkpoints and the wall, the Israeli soldiers, their incursions and bombings, but we rarely ever exposed the issue that took your life; Israeli settler violence. We always had maps to talk about other things, we needed statistics to talk about settler violence.

In your memory, and in dedication to all Palestinian victims of Israeli settler violence, we embarked on a comprehensive study of this on going phenomenon, how it happens, and who it effects. This is meant to shed light on a facet of occupation that occurs on a daily basis but is rarely, if ever, discussed and gives us a basis upon which to have a discussion about it.

In our database, we record victims of settler violence as either injured or dead. For the 9 years after you were shot you would've been classified as the former, but not anymore. I can only wonder how many of the 1,064 Palestinian civilians classified as injured over the past 7 years in our database today will one day meet the same fate as you. (Image right: photo of the martyrdom poster for Deya in Palestine.

We'll be presenting the comprehensive analysis on April 19th, 2011. The least we can do for victims of settler violence is teach people about this problem in the hopes that they will join us in working to end it. I hope you will be watching, from somewhere.

Happy Birthday Deya and Rest in Peace,

Yousef

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Israeli Settler Violence: Not Even the Animals Are Safe

Does PETA have an international division? After reading this post in Mondoweiss this morning, I figured I'd add some context and numbers to the poignant images which captured events all too common and far too underdisscussed.

By now, readers of this blog have gotten to understand some of the risks posed to Palestinian civilians because of settler violence. But what many don't really grasp is how often the victims of Israel's fanatic settlers are not only Palestinian people, but Palestinian livestock. Sheep, horses, cows and camels have all fallen prey to settler violence in the past and many of these instances are captured in our settler violence database.

For many Palestinians, farming and shepherding is a way of life. They had been tending to their livestock and crops long before the Israeli occupation began in 1967, long before the state of Israel in 1948 and long before Zionism. But too often, it is precisely these Palestinians which fall prey to violent Israeli settlers. You see, you can't take your sheep to graze in an urban setting of densely populated concrete houses. But for the vast majority of Palestinian's tending to sheep, this means choosing between putting yourself in harms way or abandoning your way of life. Because of the Oslo Accords, most Palestinian urban centers are in what's called Area A, where the Palestinian Authority maintains security control (although Israeli forces can enter Area A at will), but most rural territory is in Area B and C where Israeli forces maintain security control. But Israeli forces see themselves there to provide security for Israelis, i.e. the settlers, and not provide security for Palestinian civilians. It should come as no surprise then that the vast majority of settler violence, upwards of 84%, occurs in Areas B and C. Because these areas stratify security control, settlers basically have free reign in Areas B and C to do as they please. There have been numerous instances where settlers attack Palestinians in Areas B and C, and Israeli forces intervene only to protect the settlers. Preventative action is almost never taken.

So when it comes to settler violence, shepherds and farmers are sitting ducks, and so are their sheep, cows, horses and the occasional camel. Our database did not code specifically for attacks on animals, but we did record injury, killing or mutilation (yes, mutilation) of livestock. Initially, I was hesitant to record such data because I thought some might take the opportunity to trivialize settler violence as Hatfield-McCoy type feuds and miss the critical point that settler violence is the inevitable byproduct of a system of inequality called occupation.

These data points should give you an idea of the inherent risks of being a Palestinian shepherd under occupation:

September 2004 - Settlers run over a herd of sheep near the village of Haris in Salfit killing and injuring 18.

August 2005 - Settlers from Kiryat Arba in Hebron poisoned and killed the horse of a Palestinian civilian living near by.

February 2006 - Settlers from Meitzad in Hebron district sprayed poison over land where Palestinian shepherds bring their sheep leading 40 of them to die.

April 2006 - Settlers from an outpost in the Ramallah district opened fire towards civilians in the village of Al Mughayyir and killed a horse.

May 2006 - Settlers opened fire at a herd of camels belonging to a Palestinian civilian near the village of Al-Awja in the Jericho district killing one camel and injuring another.

November 2007 - Settlers in a car ram through a flock of sheep killing 15 in the Jericho district.

July 2008- Settlers sprayed poison in grazing grounds which killed 14 sheep and made 18 others sick.

January 2011- Settlers opened fire at a flock of sheep near Tuwani in Hebron killing the sheep dog as well as one of the sheep.

I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. As a Palestinian heading out to tend to your sheep or pick your olive trees, you venture into the unknown and may very well be subject to Israeli settler violence. The frequency and location of these events, which will be discussed in detail here, rule out any possibility that these are isolated incidents. There are countless more cases where Palestinians have had their animals targeted. In some instances the Palestinians tending to the animals were killed or injured as well, like 15 year-old Sharif Ishtiyeh from Salem village who was mowed down and killed by an Israeli settler from the settlement of Elon Moreh, deep in the West Bank.

Settler violence, in its many forms, is an outgrowth of the Israeli occupation and a systematic attack on many facets of Palestinian life, even some of the most simple and ancient.

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Hebron: Ground Zero for Israeli Settler Violence

It's Monday and, like most days ending in the letter "y," this means there have been acts of settler violence against Palestinian civilians or their property in the West Bank. To state that these events happen on a daily basis is no exaggeration. In fact, a query of our settler violence database reveals that there were 629 events last year alone (an average of 1.7 attacks per day).

Today was no exception to the rule. Maan News Agency reported that "A 32-year-old from the south Hebron hills told Ma'an he was stabbed in the chest on Monday by settlers from the Ma'on settlement." Within minutes another story came over the wire; this one reporting that "Two Palestinians were shot Monday afternoon when a settler disembarked from his car on the Jerusalem-Hebron road and opened fire on a funeral procession heading to the Beit Ummar cemetery."

Both of these attacks today took place in the governorate of Hebron in the West Bank. This district is the epicenter of Israeli settler violence and usually accounts for more settler attacks than any of the West Bank's 9 other districts. In our database, out of the approximately 3,000 settler violence events recorded, Hebron has been the locale of 31% of the events. While trends in the past couple years have indicated a shift to the north, with more and more settler violence occurring in and around Nablus and Qalqilya, Hebron continues to see more than its share of settler violence when compared to other districts. Interestingly, the settler population in Hebron is relatively low compared to other districts. So a relatively small number of settlers account for the single highest number of attacks in any governorate. One reason for this is the unique location of certain settlements in Hebron, which include a settler population right in the heart of the Old City of Hebron that is responsible for regular violence against the Palestinian population there. Our database indicates that in the Old City of Hebron alone over the past 6 years, there have been 451 different acts of settler violence which include over 165 instances of stone throwing, over 116 physical attacks and assaults, over 30 instances of arson, over 45 instances of destruction of property, and 15 vehicular attacks which resulted in the injuring of 218 people.

But that's just in the city of Hebron. An almost equal amount of settler violence events (460) occurred inside of the governorate, but outside of the city, like the two attacks that took place today where settlers attacked Palestinians in Beit Ummar in the north of the governorate and in the Yatta area in the south. Attacks on these areas are not rare. The single village of Beit Ummar has seen at least 21 attacks in the period covered by our data, resulting in 11 injuries and one death, mostly from vehicular attacks. The area south of Yatta faces a barrage of attacks from two particularly active settlements in settler violence: Sussia and Ma'on. Combined, settlers originating from these two settlements accounted for 77 attacks, resulting in the injury of 72 civilians and inestimable damage to property.

In the north of the district, like today's attack in Beit Ummar, settlers tend to take advantage of the roads and utilize shoot-and-run tactics, or simply run over civilians with their vehicles. In the city of Hebron, attacks are far more inter-personal because of the proximity between settlers and Palestinian civilians. This is why stone throwing and beatings are so common. Often, these attacks happen under the watch of Israeli soldiers in the city. Attacks in the south, like today's attack south of Yatta, tend focus on isolated areas or villages, and targets are often schools, children or shepherds and their sheep grazing in rural areas.

While settler violence is present in all corners of the West Bank, today's attacks highlight the particular and unique challenge faced by Palestinian civilians in the district of Hebron, which face a disproportionate number of attacks from Israeli settlers on a consistent basis.

For a complete analysis of our settler violence data, check out our upcoming event on settler violence on April 19th. You can attend in person here at the Palestine Center in Washington or watch the live webcast.

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In Palestine, Everything is Relative: The Settler Violence You Won't Hear About

When I heard the horrific news last night that 5 Israeli settlers were murdered in their home in the settlement of Itamar, I knew it would only be a matter of hours before a shoddy piece of journalism describes the murders as the end of a "lull in the violence" or the end of "relative calm" since 4 Israeli settlers were killed in an attack near Hebron last summer. At that time, the Washington Post ran an editorial saying that the attacks then ended "three years of peace" in the region which we posted about.

So I suppose it should come as no surprise that the Washington Post's own Janine Zacharia leads the way this morning by displaying a complete ignorance of the situation she is supposedly covering or an overt pro-Israel bias (or both). Here's Zacharia's story and the critical excerpt:

The Israeli daily Ha'aretz, citing a preliminary investigation, reported that the children killed were ages 11, 3 and a 3-month-old baby. The newspaper also said that another 12-year-old daughter and two of her younger brothers managed to escape.

The attack shattered a relative calm that had prevailed in the West Bank in recent months as Palestinian security forces assert greater control in the territories where they are allowed by Israel to operate and as Israeli and Palestinians forces coordinate security efforts.

Last August, four Jewish settlers were killed in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank.

Zacharia's chronology is likely representative of the broader mainstream media's coverage of these events, sadly. American readers or consumers of mainstream media (MSM) are delivered a simple, straightforward message: Israelis are killed about 6 months apart and in between everything was calm.

The problem is that for Zacharia and much of the MSM "relative calm" means no Israelis were attacked, injured or killed and ignores the ongoing occupation and violence against Palestinians.

In this period of "relative calm", the Israeli Human Rights group B'Tselem recorded at least 41 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in occupied Palestinian territory. This includes Omar Qawasmeh, the 66 year old Palestinian civilian who was massacred in his bed while he slept by raiding Israeli soldiers and two 20-something Palestinian unarmed civilians shot and killed at the same checkpoint less than a week apart.

That reports can describe the killings of dozens of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers as "relative calm" and finding them completely unremarkable is disgusting in itself. Still, it's only part of the story.

Readers may know that one of our ongoing research projects at the Palestine Center is the recording and analysis of Israeli settler violence against Palestinian civilians. This past fall, we made an extensive presentation of these data that shed light on a facet of occupation almost never discussed. The presentation covered data from Jan of 2009-Aug. 2010 and included over 1000 instances of settler violence. Since then, we've undertaken the coding of a much more significant period of time that would span 6 years and give us the ability to understand more about the history and trajectory of Israeli settler violence. This would be the most comprehensive analysis of settler violence that I am aware of. I was

hoping to make an updated presentation covering this new data in the fall, however given the recent surge in Israeli settler violence we've expedited the project and will make the presentation this spring.

So what instances of settler violence were there in the period of "relative calm" that Zacharia describes? There were, in fact, over 300 instances of settler violence during this period which left over 85 unarmed Palestinians injured, 4 dead, and inestimable property damage (Including thousands of torched or uprooted olive and almond trees). Among these events were over 26 acts of Arson, 59 acts of destruction of property, 32 physical attacks, 20 shootings, 60 acts of stone throwing and 23 instances of theft. There were also 10 instances of vehicular attacks where settlers mowed down Palestinian civilians including a 5-year old and 11 year old in Hebron, an 85-year old in Salfit and this horrifying act caught on video in Jerusalem.

Attacks originated from the settlements of Adora, Ariel, Ateret, Bat Ayin, Beit El, Beitar Elit, Bracha, Dulip, Efrat, Eli, Eli Zehav, Elkana, Elon Moreh, Haggai, Halamish, Harsina, Havat Gilad, Immanuel, Itamar, Kaida, Karmei Tzur, Karmel, Karnei Shomron, Kedumim, Maale Mikhmas, Maon, Maskiyot, Neve Daniel, Rehalim, Revava, Shama, Shuvot Rachel, Shilo, Sussia, Talmon, Kfar Tappuah, Yaki, Yash Adam and Yitzhar. These attacks were directed against 79 different Palestinian villages and cities in every district in the West Bank....and this is only in the past 6 months.

If these 6 months can be described as "relative calm" one really has to wonder just what extent of violence against Palestinian civilians would be considered noteworthy by the mainstream media?

In a world where everything is relative, it seems the mainstream American press has decided that Palestinian lives are relatively worthless compared to Israeli lives. But this is also a world where the mainstream media is losing its grip on the control of storytelling and information that directly contradicts faulty journalism is available at everyone's finger tips.

We'll continue to do our part to bring this information, especially about settler violence, to you and we hope you'll share it with others who'd otherwise be mislead by a relatively worthless mainstream media.

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Settler Attacks on Wheels

A well-known leader of an Israeli settlement in Jerusalem, who generally works to get rid of Palestinians by expanding his settlement onto Palestinian land, took his actions a step - or a step on the accelerator - further this morning. Gruesome photos emerged of the Israeli settler leader driving over Palestinian boys demonstrating in Silwan. The images, to the right, courtesy of AFP, show the boys being run over and flung into the air. We rarely get images of these types of settler attacks, but because of the heavy media presence in East Jerusalem covering the weekly protests against de-Arabization, these shots were captured. While images from other attacks like this one aren't as readily available, you can imagine just how horrifying they can be. Here is the tough to watch video...

Recently, I wrote about our analysis of settler violence relating to arson after a mosque was targeted earlier this week. Since then, there have been additional acts of arson, but vehicular attacks by settlers against Palestinian civilians are also not rare occurrences. In the 18 month period we analyzed, we coded 37 instances of vehicular assault - an average of approximately 2 per month. About 40% of these instances take place in or around Hebron, another 16% occur in the Bethlehem governorate, with the reaming attacks being divided more evenly among other areas.

At 9am on July 7th, 2010, for example, a settler in Bethlehem ran over 3 Palestinian civilians causing injuries to all, including one Palestinian civilian who sustained serious injuries.

At 6pm on June 15th, 2010, a settler near the settlement of Kiryat Arba in Hebron's old city ran over a 10-year old Palestinian child. The child sustained serious injuries and had to be evacuated immediately to a hospital for treatment.

A week prior, at 11:30am on June 7th, an Israeli settler ran over a Palestinian civilian near the village of Marj al Ghazal in the Jericho governorate. The victim sustained serious injuries and had to be evacuated to a hospital.

And only a week before that, at 8:30pm on May 31st, an Israeli settler ran over a 59 year-old man and his wife near Beit Ummar, a village in the governorate of Hebron. The attack injured the man and killed his wife, who did not survive the injuries she sustained.

I could go on, but I think you get the point. Another day, another settler attack, maybe two. The phenomenon of settler violence continues to be a significant risk to Palestinian civilians throughout the West Bank, and while you may not hear much about it elsewhere, we will continue to do our part to put forward information about settler violence based on the data we continue to collect.

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