Cometh the olive harvest season in Palestine, cometh the exponential increase in settler terrorism against Palestinians in the West Bank who harvest their olive trees. It has been more than a year since the International Court of Justice ruled that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land was unlawful and must end almost immediately — although, unfortunately, this scenario is unlikely in the immediate future. Yet, even if Israel rejects this ruling, it is still beyond comprehension why the government and its security forces are not doing everything in their power to stop the violence inflicted by Jewish settlers in the West Bank on their Palestinian neighbors.
There is a relatively small group of settlers, although not insignificant, that is becoming more emboldened in stepping up its abhorrent behavior as international attention is elsewhere, while a government is in power in which the ultraright-wing rules supreme, and after years of similar violence with almost complete impunity.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in 2025, there have been “1,680 settler attacks across more than 270 communities — an average of five per day.” This is a staggering number. As such, settler violence is not new, but it is the constant swelling of this phenomenon and its increasing intensity and brazenness — while protected physically by the security forces and politically by the settlers’ representatives in government — that signify a much greater threat to the local Palestinian population and a future peace based on a two-state solution.
Make no mistake, those who are engaged in these acts of violence are not just random thugs. They are very much organized thugs harboring a Jewish supremacist ideology, who are carrying military-grade weapons, including fully automatic assault rifles, and who also, in many cases, arrive at the scene of their crimes in pickup trucks, leaving the impression of an organized and well-funded militia. This leaves the by-and-large unarmed Palestinians defenseless, particularly as the Israeli security forces are, ironically, more concerned with the safety of the violent settlers than those they victimize.
The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem reported, for instance, that eight masked settlers arrived at the home of the Daramin family in the Wadi Ejheis area in the South Hebron Hills in late October, carrying clubs and wearing gloves. The parents, Wafa and Mahmoud, and their four children, among them a six-month-old baby, who were in the yard, fled inside when the settlers arrived and locked the door behind them.
In an act of sheer brutality, the assailants tried to break down the front door while shouting in Arabic, “Open the door.” They smashed the windows and sprayed pepper spray inside, proceeding to smash the windows of the family’s car and topping this terrifying experience for the family by breaking their sheep pen, killing 10 sheep and severely injuring four others, and setting fire to a bundle of hay. Just imagine the terror the family felt and the trauma of their children, who also suffered from breathing difficulties due to the pepper spray and needed hospital treatment.
This is not an isolated incident. In another, a masked settler was caught on camera clubbing a 55-year-old Palestinian woman as she was picking olives in the village of Turmus Ayya. By sheer luck, she survived this mindless brutality. In the name of what and who are they committing these criminal acts? This is an ugly mix of thuggery, cowardice and a distorted, extremist version of Judaism and Zionism and the nexus between them.
The flagrant manner in which these setters act is a result of the emergence of a mindset among the most extreme segments that this is an opportune moment which might not return. Today, they are protected by the disproportionate power of their representatives in the current coalition government, with the military doing next to nothing to stop them, while the deafening silence on the part of the rest of Israeli society is seen as a license to continue.
Although the violent elements among the 700,000 illegal settlers in the Occupied Territories are a small minority, their leadership is prominent in the Israeli legislature and Cabinet and is cut from the same cloth. They include National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is also a minister in the Defense Ministry. The latter, who is entrusted with the administration of the West Bank, has described his belief in employing a more heavy-handed approach toward any Palestinian militancy “in a way that conveys that the master of the house has gone crazy.”
And there is enough evidence that this has become the blueprint for violent settlers, who do not spare even places of worship, such as carrying out arson attacks on mosques, as was the case last month in the Hamida Mosque, near Deir Istiya.
Knowing that Netanyahu has no political bandwidth or stamina to fire the ultraright ministers in his government as long as his corruption trial continues, their disciples enjoy free rein to treat the Palestinian population as they wish. They are unlikely to face charges, let alone prosecution or any custodial sentences, even in cases where settlers have shot and killed unarmed Palestinians in unprovoked attacks.
These acts of terrorist vandalism are a manifestation of moral and ideological bankruptcy among those who commit them, but also among those who do not stop them. In their twisted minds, they believe that by exacting a reign of terror on the local population, they will achieve Palestinians’ complete and utter submission to their whims. Or, even “better,” it will lead them to believe that they would be better off leaving their homes for exile, on the way to Israel annexing the entire West Bank.
The fact this politically motivated violence is allowed to go unpunished makes the Israeli government complicit in these acts and potentially in war crimes and crimes against humanity, as they target a specific ethnic group. Also complicit is the international community, especially Israel’s closest allies, which are condemning both the settlers’ violence and the impunity with which it is carried out, but only half-heartedly and without taking any steps to stop them.
The pressure on the Israeli government from at least the EU, the UK and Canada, among others, as well as from regional powers, must be explicit and its consequences felt by the individuals and organizations that are directly or indirectly involved. Procrastinating on this disturbing issue will not make it go away — it will only make it worse.
BY: Writer Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international relations and an associate fellow of the MENA Program at Chatham House.
Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect The Times Union‘ point of view
