Yves here. We must confess that so many headlines are going on that they do not give much attention to an important element of Israel’s campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians: that of the escalation of violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. The conflict in Gaza, the successful Houthi attacks on ships, the continued Israeli threats against Lebanon, the falsity (so far) of the peace talks, all of this has served, whether by accident or design, to cover up the ongoing Israeli human rights violations in the West Bank.
By Jake Johnson, Editor at Common Dreams. Originally published on Common dreams
A coalition of humanitarian agencies on Friday implored the international community to take concrete and punitive action against the Israeli government and settlers after the number of settler attacks in the occupied West Bank since October 7 surpassed 1,000.
The Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA), a group of international organizations working in the occupied Palestinian territories, said in a statement: statement that the rate of settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank has doubled since the same period last year, from an average of two per day to four.
“At least 10 people, including two children, were killed in these attacks, and at least 234 were injured, including 20 children. Since October 7, 1,260 people, including 600 children, have been forcibly displaced due to settler violence and movement restrictions. The displaced families belong to 20 herder and Bedouin communities in Area C of the West Bank. As one survivor of settler violence explained, “nowhere is safe here.”
“Settler violence is premeditated and orchestrated by groups organized from known outposts and settlements, with the support of the Israeli government, including local and regional settlement councils,” the group added, noting that limited sanctions The measures imposed by the United States and the European Union on the settlers “have failed to reduce the frequency of attacks.”
“Although some individuals have been arrested, no civilians or soldiers have been prosecuted in connection with these 1,000 attacks,” AIDA said. “Reports indicate that some illegal farms operated by authorized settlers – many of whom have reportedly been the focus of multiple violent incidents – have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in material support from the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Settlements, the Settlements Administration within the Ministry of Defense, and through local and regional settlement councils.”
AIDA urged the international community to “adopt further restrictive measures that go beyond individual settlers to target identified organizations and state entities that promote violence and/or participate in attacks against Palestinian civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
The group also argued that the far-right Israeli government “should be held accountable for repeated, evidence-based allegations that the military and other state authorities tolerate, facilitate, and sometimes participate in settler violence.”
A Human Rights Watch report published in April find that the Israeli military “participated in or failed to protect Palestinians from violent settler attacks in the West Bank that have moved “Security forces have attacked people from 20 communities and completely uprooted at least seven communities” since October 7.
AIDA’s statement comes days after the Israeli government announcement the seizure of nearly five square miles of land in the West Bank, the largest land seizure by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory in more than three decades.
Sally Abi Khalil, Middle East and North Africa director at AIDA member Oxfam International, said on Friday that settler attacks in the West Bank had reached a “worrying level”.
“In a context where the legalization of outposts is accelerated, and Israel “Israel is stealing more and more land,” Khalil said, “foreign governments must act now to end this illegal appropriation by taking meaningful steps to hold the Israeli government and the perpetrators of these attacks accountable.”
