Calls upon the International Community to End Israel’s Impunity
ARIJ Denounces the Israeli Settler Violence as it Trenches Impediments before the Two State Solution
The Applied Research Institute-Jerusalem (ARIJ) denounces the impunity that the Israeli settlers enjoy in their organized and systematic violence against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank, including in East Jerusalem, particularly across the past decade (around 500 attacks since the beginning of 2021)[1]. The nature of the attacks carried out by the Israeli settlers have also stepped up in terms of viciousness and has reached extremely high levels, to include physical and verbal assaults on individuals; including children, and inflicting damage to homes, and on sources of livelihood (on livestock, burning crops, cutting down and burning olive trees), deface and burn of churches and mosques, direct shooting at people and farmers, in addition to the various forms of harassments and displacement. Currently, the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem is under a fierce campaign to evacuate its residents to hand over the neighborhood area to the Israeli settlers under the false claim of ownership. The Israeli settlers are also instrumenting the Israeli State to mobilize the campaign to evacuate the Palestinian residents in Batan Al-Hawa in Silwan area for the same purpose. More than a thousand Palestinians are under serious threat of displacement under the very sight of the international community and the breach of the international law and regulation starting with the Hague regulation and the Geneva Convention, right to the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council Resolutions. SEE INFO-GRAPH
INFO-GRAPH OF ISRAELI SETTLER ATTACKS IN THE OCCUPIED WEST BANK
Even though Israel is obligated to protect Palestinian civilians under Article 49, of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, the crimes of the settlers against Palestinians are almost never investigated. These systematic attacks evidently nurtured by the Israeli State, which usually takes place in the presence of the Israeli Army and/ or the Israeli police. “Yesh Din”, an Israeli human rights organization, highlights such a reality “in the period between 2005-2019, 91 percent of the investigations in cases filed by Palestinians for ideologically motivated crimes, have been closed without indictments by the Israeli military.”
The Israeli settlers’ attacks and violence in the occupied Palestinian territory are directly linked to the existence of the Israeli settlements build illegally on the land of Palestinians and in contradiction to the international law. Today 199 Israeli settlements accommodating more than 800 thousand settlers exist in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Their existence is far more damaging than the cement construction. It includes a network of bypass roads that is used to dissect the occupied territory and deny Palestinian freedom of movement and access to their agricultural and pastoral lands.
The action of the Israeli settlers has only worked to fuel tension on the ground and infringe international humanitarian law; as it remains a major element in an endeavor to undermine any potential progress in the negotiations towards a two-state solution along the internationally recognized international resolutions and the signed agreements in line with the internationally agreed parameters.
[1] The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
https://www.ochaopt.org/page/settler-related-violence
Prepared by:
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
