Background

Settlements are permanent civilian communities established in the occupied Palestinian territory in contravention of international law, where only Israelis are allowed to reside. It is estimated that around 500,000 settlers live in over 200 illegal settlements, which comprise approximately 42% of land in the West Bank. Settlements have a strong antagonistic presence in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. They fragment the Palestinian territory, and many of them have been built on confiscated privately owned land. Settlements and their related infrastructure entail for Palestinians restrictions on movement and access to their land. Some settlers subscribe to ultra-nationalistic ideals and believe this land should be handed back to the Jewish people, therefore, they are violent toward the Palestinian population, including children.

Throughout the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the Israeli authorities have consistently failed to prevent settler attacks against Palestinians and to take adequate enforcement measures against settlers and settler guards who commit these crimes. Over 90 per cent of settler violence incidents that are investigated by Israeli authorities are closed without any charges being filed.

Israeli government support for settlements and the settlement movement has taken various forms since 1967. The West Bank settlements are identified as National Priority Areas , and as such receive a number of economic benefits to ensure the areas remain populated. Several different government authorities have provided various forms of support essential to continued settlement expansion . In 2005, settlers comprised only 3.93 per cent of Israel' s population in the West Bank, (excluding East Jerusalem) but received as extra funds more than 13 per cent of Israel's budget .

Applicable Law

International Law

 Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel is prohibited from transferring its own civilian population into the territory it occupies. This is also a rule of customary law. This rule is designed to prevent the illegal colonisation of territory acquired by force. In addition, the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court states that the transfer of civilian population by the occupying power into the territory it occupies constitutes a war crime. In its 2004 Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of a Wall , the International Court of Justice declared that ‘ Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (including East Jerusalem) have been established in breach of international law .'

Article 4 of the Fourth Geneva Convention confers the status of ‘protected persons' upon the citizens of an occupied territory. Under this provision, Israel has the obligation to protect the Palestinian population.

Domestic Law

There is a dual system of law operating in the West Bank. The settlers are subject to Israeli civil law, with all the rights of a democratic state guaranteed to them. Palestinians, on the other hand are governed by a series of military orders within a military system, which deprives them of the rights guaranteed to their Israeli settler neighbours. This dual system of law discriminates against Palestinians.

Reality on the ground

In 2010, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ( OCHA ) recorded 79 settler violence incidents leading to Palestinian casualties, and 240 incidents leading to Palestinian land or property damage. This represents a ‘ 70 per cent increase in settler violence against Palestinians and their property ,' which the UN ascribes to ‘ lax law enforcement on violent settlers . ' The same year, DCI-Palestine documented 17 cases of settler violence against Palestinian children throughout the West Bank, three of which occurred in East Jerusalem.

In 2011, there has been a sharp increase in settler violence incidents. As of May 2011, DCI has documented 19 cases of violence against children involving settlers, two of them fatal.

According to the UN , ‘ Settler violence is not random criminal activity; in most cases, it is ideology-driven, organized violence, the goal of which is to assert settler dominance over an area.' Reported incidents of settler violence are highly concentrated in Hebron and the outskirts of Nablus, where settlers adhere to extremist ideologies. Despite their obligations to the protected population of the Occupied Territory, Israeli forces often fail to protect Palestinian from settler violence. Furthermore, in some cases, they collude with the settlers during settler attacks.

Statistics

Number of Children Affected by settler violence by month:

                     2009- 2011are projected growth figures. Source: Jewish Virtual Library, available at:         http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/arabs/PalPaper110409.pdf

Recommendations

The Israeli forces stationed in the occupied territory should protect the Palestinian population from settler violence, as stipulated in Article 4 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Adequate investigations into attacks on Palestinians by Israeli civilians should be conducted, and perpetrators should be held accountable for their actions.