The Truth About "Settler Violence"

22 Marcheshvan 5786

Settlers launch major West Bank arson attack;
IDF, police arrest four suspects

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This story has been reported upon every day this week in one form or another and two things stand out: (1) only four were taken into custody "for questioning" but no one has been charged, and (2) not one story has bothered to set forth any reasons for the "rampage." Even Hamas's reasons for Oct. 7th have been endlessly reported however without merit they may be, but not so in the case of "settlers."

Following is a cut-and-paste of an informative piece by Amit Segal (Chief political analyst, @N12News) posted to "X"...

How bad were yesterday’s riots by Jewish extremists near the Palestinian town of Tulkarm? Well, it’s a miracle that it ended without fatalities, according to the head of IDF Central Command.

“The reality in which anarchist fringe youth act violently against innocents and against security forces,” he added, “is an intolerable and extremely serious situation that must be dealt with firmly. Dealing with this phenomenon requires the combined efforts of all systems of the State of Israel, education, welfare, enforcement, and punishment.”

Quick recap: yesterday, around 100 Jewish extremists “attacked Palestinians and set fire to property in the area,” according to the IDF. But that’s not all: they even attacked IDF soldiers who responded to the scene. As of writing, only four have been arrested, while Israeli security forces are still searching for others who took part in the violence.

So, settler violence in Judea and Samaria is really out of control isn’t it? It depends who you ask. On one hand, these extremists represent a tiny fraction of Jews living in the area, the overwhelming majority of whom are opposed to such violence.

Nevertheless, that small handful of extremists are succeeding in causing enormous damage to the Palestinians they target, and are simultaneously distracting IDF resources from what they should be focusing on: protecting Israelis from Palestinian terror, not the other way round.

Ok, but why is the situation so severe? For one, in November 2024, Defense Minister Israel Katz scrapped Israel’s administrative detention policy for Israeli settlers.

I’ll explain. Administrative detention is a means for authorities to hold suspected terrorists without charge for up to six months due to the imminent risk that they pose. Until last year, it was used for both Palestinians and Israelis in Judea and Samaria — but since Katz scrapped its use (which the Shin Bet warned against), it’s been harder for the IDF to combat extremist Jewish violence in the area.

And it’s causing frustration in the military’s higher echelons, with senior IDF commanders asking Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir to call on the government to reinstate administrative detention for Jewish extremists.

But that’s not all. There’s also an issue totally unrelated to the military: far from stereotypical extremists, most of the Jews committing these violent acts are troubled youth who should be in the care of welfare authorities.

The bottom line: if you’re getting your information on settler violence from the BBC, New York Times and co, you’re not seeing the full picture, to say the least. In fact, once you break down the numbers, it turns out there’s nowhere near as much violence as some would have you think.

I explained why in a December 2023 column for Yedioth Ahronoth:

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A friend with kids recently visited his sister. “Want chocolate milk?” the aunt asked, and of course, the kids shouted yes. “Okay, just so you know,” she quipped, “the powder isn’t chocolate, but rather carob powder. The milk is soy milk, and we drink it without sugar.”

I was reminded of that chocolate-less chocolate milk when I saw the UN data on settler violence — the most important issue in the world’s eyes between the river and the sea before the war broke out. Since the start of the war in Gaza, it holds the honorable second place.

But once you break down the numbers on settler violence, it turns out there’s not much violence — and not many settlers.

Dr. Michael Wolfowicz, a criminology researcher from the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, looked at the UN data. On the face of it, it’s horrifying. Between 2016 and 2022, there were no fewer than 5,656 incidents of settler violence against Palestinians. But diving into the details reveals that 1,600 of those happened in Jerusalem, almost all of which were instances of Jewish entry to the Temple Mount or police clashes with Muslims rioting there.

After further filtering, there are another 2,500 events that describe property damage or physical assault — but these include, for example, a terrorist attack carried out by a Palestinian that ended with the terrorist being killed.

On April 8, 2018, Muhammad Abd al-Karim Marshoud attempted to stab Israeli civilians in Ma’ale Adumim. He was injured and died the next day. Astonishingly, in the case of Marshoud, the UN recorded two incidents of violence: On April 8, a Palestinian was shot; on April 9, the Palestinian died.

There’s more. On July 26, 2018, 30-year-old Yotam Ovadia was stabbed to death by a 17-year-old Palestinian terrorist. Here too, according to the UN, the neutralization of the terrorist by Yotam is recorded as settler violence.

The same applies to a stabbing attack in the Hebron Hills; another one in Yitzhar; injuries to Arab rioters from Israeli security forces’ gunfire at Joseph’s Tomb; and entering the Tomb of Joshua.

Even traffic accidents in which settlers hit Palestinians were classified as violence.

In the end, we’re left with about twenty violent incidents per month, most of them mutual, and some reported only by Palestinians, with no verification. Even if all are true, here’s the proper comparison: according to the IDF, between 2019 and 2022 alone, there were 25,257 Palestinian attacks on settlers — a rate of 500 a year. Last year, that number jumped to 763.

The inflation of settler violence from a limited phenomenon to absurd proportions is meant to soothe the world’s conscience by creating a strange kind of symmetry for the support it gives Israel in its war against the murderous Hamas. In Israel, the campaign serves the purpose of expelling settlers and establishing a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria.

This week, the news site HaKol HaYehudi published a policy paper from a think tank funded by the New Israel Fund and a German foundation, whose goal is to vilify settlers and revive the idea of Palestinian independence.

If you will it, it is no dream.

In the simplest possible terms, if it really is "settlers," they are reacting to aggression, not initiating it.