Photo by Yossi Zamir, Shatil-Stok
Settler Violence
Important terms
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Settler violence – Ideologically motivated offenses committed by Israeli civilians against Palestinians or their property in the occupied territories. Treating incidents as isolated crimes obscures the pattern: taken together they function to push Palestinians off land.
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Outpost – A settlement built without Israeli government authorization. Outposts are unlawful under Israeli law as well as international law, yet many receive State services, infrastructure and military protection, and some are retroactively legalized.
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Farm outpost – A newer form of outpost in which a small number of settlers, often a single family with livestock, claim control over a large grazing area. Because a farm outpost can dominate far more land than a residential one, this model has driven much of the recent displacement of herding communities.
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Area C – Under the Oslo Accords, the roughly 60 percent of the West Bank under full Israeli civil and security control. Almost all settlements, outposts and Palestinian herding communities are located there.
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank face regular violence from Israeli settlers – assaults, arson, destruction of crops and livestock, and armed incursions into villages – which has grown more frequent and more organized since October 7th. Much of it radiates from unauthorized outposts, particularly the farm outposts established beside Palestinian herding communities.
As the occupying power, Israel is obliged under international law to protect the population under its control. In practice soldiers frequently stand by during attacks and at times take part, and only a small fraction of police investigations into settler violence end in a conviction. The consequence is not only injury and loss of property, but displacement: shepherding communities in the northern Jordan Valley and elsewhere have abandoned land they used for generations, unable to graze, farm or sleep in safety.
ACRI petitions the Supreme Court and appeals to the Minister of Defense, the Central Command and the Civil Administration, demanding that soldiers be ordered to protect residents, that violent settlers be removed, and that blocked roads and fenced-off grazing land be reopened. It also represents communities facing expulsion and documents the pattern for Israeli and international audiences.
