Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement Report, covering everything you need to know about Israeli settlement activity this week.
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September 6, 2024
- Settler Terrorism & Sanctions
- Operation “Summer Camps” and the Expansion of Israel’s War Against Palestinians
- Bonus Reads
Settler Terrorism & Sanctions
Settlers have continued to terrorize Palestinians across the West Bank. Over the past few days settlers have been documented:
- Raiding the village of Qaryut (near Nablus) and setting fields on fire (Sept. 6). The settlers, accompanied by soldiers, clashed with locals during which time a 13-year old girl was shot and killed in her bedroom, reportedly by Israeli military forces;
- On the same day (Sep. 6th) an American-Turkish citizen, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, was shot in the head when Israeli forces and settlers opened fire on a protest in Beitar;
- Torching cars in the villages of Deir Dibwan and Khirbet Abu Falah, leaving graffiti indicating it was a “price tag” attack;
Settlers continue perpetrating unabated and escalating violence despite the expanding number of sanctions on settlers by foreign governments and bodies. In its new report on settler violence, the International Crisis Group calls on foreign governments not only to continue expanding sanctions on violent settlers and entitities, but to accompany those sanctions with curbing arms sales to Israel.
One country continuing to expand sanctions is the U.S., which is also under continued civil society pressure to continue doing so. On August 28th the U.S. government announced two new sanction targets: the Israeli settler group Hashomer Yosh, and Yitzhak Levi Filant – an Israeli who serves as the civilian security coordinator for the Yitzhar settlement. Both are accused by the U.S. government of being responsible for violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
The sanctions on the Hashomer Yosh (“The Guardian of Judea and Samaria”) organization is particularly notable because it is funded by the Israeli government, and its executives are affiliated with Israeli officials Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. In response to the U.S. sanctions, the group even defended its actions by asserting that it coordinates its activities with the government. +972 Magazine further revealed that the organization has received funding from the U.S.-based Central Fund of Israel between 2015-2019. The group is identified by Palestinian activists in the South Hebron Hills as the “number one” group behind settler terrorism, which led to the coerced displacement of the Khirbet Zanuta community earlier this year. For more on this organization, see Peace Now’s reporting.
Yitzhak Levi Filant serves as the civilian security coordinator for the Yitzhar settlement According to DAWN, Filant has participated in or directed “violent assaults, shootings, threats at gunpoint, arson, and property destruction targeting Palestinian civilians between October 2019 and February 2024…Most recently, on February 17, 2024, Filant and other settlers set up a makeshift roadblock outside the village of Asira al-Qibliya and forcibly removed three Palestinian civilians from a car, assaulted them, and threatened to burn the vehicle if they returned.”
In addition to the new U.S. sanctions, Haaretz reports that the European Union Foreign Minister Josep Borell will ask members to impose sanctions on Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir. The EU would have to vote unanimously to impose sanctions, though individual member states can proceed with sanctions independent of EU consensus. The settler-run Arutz Sheva outlet reports that EU members have already promised Israeli diplomats that they will veto the sanctions.
Operation “Summer Camps” and the Expansion of Israel’s War Against Palestinians
The Israeli military’s operation “Summer Camps” has lasted 10 days so far, during which at least 30 Palestinians have been killed and terrorized the West Bank cities of Jenin, Tulkarem, Tubas, and surrounding areas. Palestinians there have endured repeated airstrikes, constant buzzing of drones, large-scale and repetitive raids, and the destruction of infrastructure including roads, water systems and electricity grids. Israel’s operations have effectively paralyzed life across the West Bank. The Israeli government and military say their campaign – which is the largest since the Second Intifada – is to root out resistance cells and have been spurred by the recent uptick in the use of explosives, including recent booby trapped cars and a suicide bomber.
Though there have been reports that Israeli forces withdrew from Jenin and Tulkarem on September 6th, Israel Hayom has previously reported that the Israeli government is planning for a long-term, large-scale military operation across the whole West Bank – with Hebron being the next target. Other reports suggest the Israeli government is moving to designate the entire West Bank as an active combat zone, no longer a secondary front of its war on Gaza. Israeli Defense Minister Gallant urged extensive military campaigns in the West Bank, saying “we [Israel] are mowing the lawn, [but] the moment will also come when we will pull out the roots, that must be done.
In Jenin and Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, Palestinians were trapped in their homes unable to leave for days. Israel has also shot at Palestinian ambulances and obstructed their ability to reach injured people or even respond to emergency calls not related to Israel’s incursion. The Palestinian Red Crescent told Haaretz that it took 8 hours for an ambulance to reach and transport a patient for her dialysis treatment – which the hospital later suspended because they did not have enough consistent electricity to run the machines. A resident of Jenin told the New York Times:
“…this is the first time we see this kind of brutality…There is no humanity. They uprooted the trees, broke the buildings. The sewer mains meters under the ground, they ripped them up. The electricity, the water — they didn’t leave anything untouched.”
Another Jenin resident told +972 Magazine reporter Mariam Barghouti:
“What do you think they’re doing? They’re pushing for escalation so that they can fully depopulate us..They’re making life for us unbearable…What this does is naturally push us toward confrontation, and when we do, the Israeli military further intensifies its abusive practices.”
The Haaretz Editorial Board ominously warns:
“Ten days ago, the army intensified the combat and launched Operation Summer Camps, which is currently underway. The reins have been loosened and the army is now operating like it does in Gaza. At least 38 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, including at least nine minors. The destruction sown by the army in the refugee camps resembles the destruction in Gaza. These have always been futile operations whose only result, in the absence of a political plan, is pushing West Bank residents further into despair and toward armed struggle. The minister of the West Bank, Bezalel Smotrich, and the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, under Netanyahu’s leadership and with the army’s participation, are doing everything they can to open another front in addition to the ones that are already aflame. They will soon get their wish.”
Bonus Reads
- “‘This is a war’: FM urges Gaza-style temporary evacuation of Palestinians in West Bank” (The Times of Israel)
- “Inside the Movement to Settle Southern Lebanon” (Jewish Currents)
- “Shin Bet Chief Warns PM and Ministers: Jewish Terror Is Jeopardizing Israel’s Existence“ (Haaretz)
- “Israeli settlers are seizing Palestinian land under cover of war – they hope permanently” (BBC)
- “Aiding and Abetting Jewish Settler Terror: Will There Now Be Real Consequences?” (Haaretz Editorial Board)
- “Trump’s Israel adviser suggests diverting $1 billion from Palestinian aid to fund West Bank annexation” (Forward)