The "settler violence" libel

 

Israeli hikers before the terrorist attack on them July 24 

by Melanie Philips

 This is how murderous Arab attacks against Jewish residents in the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria, aka the “West Bank”, are being reframed as Jewish “settler violence” against Arabs by enemies of the Jewish people.

Last Friday morning, a group of Jewish hikers walked into the village of Tel in Area B, an area under joint Israeli-Palestinian Authority security control and where Israelis aren’t allowed to enter without prior co-ordination, not having been cleared by the IDF to do so.

According to accounts by Jewish community organizations and in the Israeli media, verified by video footage, they came under attack from Arabs throwing stones and swinging clubs, striking one hiker in the face. The hikers fired warning shots in the air and retreated towards Israeli-controlled Area C.

One hour later, dozens of Arabs converged upon them from three directions. IDF soldiers arrived, the Arabs started shooting but, according to the hikers, the Israeli soldiers refused to open fire. Video footage shows them hesitating in an attempt to de-escalate. Only when an Arab wrestled a rifle from a civilian guard and shot dead (warning: distressing footage) an IDF soldier and a civilian guard did the IDF troops open fire, killing four Arabs.

Unnamed defense officials have briefed that the hikers were irresponsibly provocative. This, they say, is a pattern of behavior by such hikers around Judea and Samaria, in which they put Israeli troops in needless danger by expecting the IDF to rescue them if they get attacked.

Maybe so. These are apparently members of a hiking group that regularly hikes around Judea and Samaria. It’s hard not to believe they don’t have a political motive in doing so by showing that they’re entitled to be in the land. Does one have to declare, though, that this doesn’t deserve a death sentence?

The fact remains that they were attacked by Arabs and that two Israelis were murdered. Anyone who dismisses this as Zionist propaganda should look at the transparently implausible claims made about this incident by Dr Jihad Ramadan, a Tel resident and a former official of Fatah, who said:

The settlers raided the village from several directions…They carried out a real massacre in front of cameras and the media…They use drones and unmanned aircraft from above to carry out attacks.

This was one of a number of escalating attacks on Jews in these areas over a few days last week, followed by a series of revenge attacks by Jews.

Last Saturday, Arab assailants attacked an off-duty Israeli soldier near Susya near Hebron in the Judean hills and seized his weapon. They struck the soldier in the head with a stone and he was taken to hospital in moderate condition. Four Arab terrorists were subsequently arrested.

Last Thursday, one of the founders of a farm enterprise near Itamar, who went to help extinguish a fire that had been set in an arson attack, was attacked and seriously injured. On the same day, an Israeli was stabbed in the hand near the settlement of Ganin in the Menashe region. It was later discovered that the attacker was a Palestinian police officer.

On Saturday night, seven Palestinian Arab suspects were arrested on suspicion of involvement in a violent incident near a farm in the Beitar Illit area. According to police, during a scuffle an Israeli citizen was attacked with a lance and was slightly injured.

Eight days ago, around 30 buildings including family homes and businesses near Havat Gilad were destroyed in an enormous blaze that rapidly spread through dry scrubland. Residents said a burning object had been thrown from a passing car, following another suspected arson incident in the area the pervious night, and that fireworks were launched from nearby Arab villages while fire-fighters battled the blaze.

The police said the fires had started after a cigarette butt was thrown carelessly from a moving car, but they didn’t suspect a terrorist motive. This always sounded implausible; privately, however, the police reportedly say they do indeed suspect that this was a deliberate arson attack.

The Israelis fear that the sharp uptick in Arab violence in these areas — which they battle daily, month in, month out — signals the intention to launch a fresh “intifada”, a large scale, sustained and coordinated terrorist campaign. On IDF radio, military correspondent Doron Kadosh reported a growing willingness by Arabs to confront Jews entering Arab villages. Over the weekend, the IDF and counter-terrorist police arrested dozens of Arabs.

At the same time, there’s been a rising number of attacks on Arabs by Israelis. Over this period of a few days, there were at least five such incidents including arson attacks on mosques, the burning of Arab vehicles, and an attempted arson attack on an occupied home in the village of Beit Furik.

In view of the fact that Jewish residents of this areas are under sustained and murderous onslaught, these can be seen primarily as revenge attacks. That doesn’t make them right or excusable. It may be the case, as is frequently alleged, that the influence of the ultra-nationalist policing minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has stayed police hands in dealing with these Israeli attackers, who should be arrested and prosecuted. What is inexcusable, however, is to describe this whole situation as “settler violence”.

No-one denies there’s a problem of aggressive and unprovoked Israeli violence against Arabs in these areas. But it’s committed by a very small minority of mainly delinquent youths. The police estimate their number as being in the low hundreds. Even if there were as many as 1000 such individuals, that would still represent 0.2 per cent of the total Jewish population of around 500,000 in Judea and Samaria.

And such attacks by Jews on Arabs in these territories are hugely overwhelmed by the number of Arab attacks on Jews. Last year, more than 1300 major terrorist attacks there by Arabs were thwarted. Fifty four terrorist attacks were successful, with 25 Israelis murdered and 197 injured. And there were thousands of smaller incidents including potentially deadly stone throwing, arson and laser attacks.

After Central District Court Judge Ron Sulkin last week released from custody an Israeli farmer who had gone in pursuit of thieves who had stolen his herd, the judge said:

We must also keep in our eyes the difficult, even unbearable reality experienced by the settlers in Judea and Samaria, with particular emphasis on farm residents: daily attacks on the roads, attempted infiltrations into communities and farms, harassment, agricultural theft, arson and fire. The settlers are dealing with a hostile population that frequently seeks their harm, to the point of taking their lives.

A minor error in navigation [by a settler] could end in a lynch mob and severe injuries, up to loss of life. A simple drive home could end in a head injury from a large stone. Standing at a hitchhiking post could end in murder via gunfire from a passing car. Living in such a region under constant threat often requires settlers to be suspicious and strict in the decisiveness of their actions, in a manner that to someone living elsewhere might be perceived as blunt or even exaggerated. Their actions and responses must be examined, among other things, in light of this reality and not under laboratory conditions, under the breeze of an air conditioner and neon lighting. Of course, if anyone breaks the law, he must be brought to justice in any case.

Yet this intolerable reality is being erased by the global humanitarian network, centered in the UN, NGOs and western media. Aided and abetted by left-wing, post-Zionist Israeli activist groups, they are turning Jewish victimization into Jewish aggression — thus ramping up incitement to yet more Arab attacks. Honest Reporting notes:

Since January 2026, outlets ran 984 stories on “settler violence” in the West Bank against only 9 articles on Palestinian attacks on Jewish civilians in the same territory, resulting in a 109:1 disparity. From international coverage alone, a glaringly lopsided picture is painted. One in which Jewish civilians living, or even merely visiting, anywhere in the West Bank are vigilantes, acting with impunity and attacking Palestinians.

There is already a misleading narrative about “settler violence,” one built on casualty statistics that blur terrorists with civilians. But a deeper issue has now become apparent, whereby “settler violence” itself has become a permanent framework through which stories about and from the West Bank are told, independent of actual trends and attempts to curb the violence.

Last weekend, the Sunday Times ran a long and disgraceful article by Christina Lamb quoting Arabs in these disputed territories who accused Israeli soldiers of committing atrocities against them and alleged constant terrorist attacks by Israeli “settlers”. Lamb, who suggested that the IDF were wantonly killing Arab infants and other entirely peaceful Arab civilians for no reason, quoted the radical activist groups B’Tselem and Peace Now who claimed the Israelis were intent upon ethnic cleansing. She made no mention whatsoever of any attacks by Arabs upon Jewish residents.

The following morning, BBC Radio’s Today programme ran a very similar item (2 hours 38 mins in) interviewing Arabs in the territories claiming vicious attacks on them by rampaging bands of Israeli “settlers”. This was backed up by Melina Ansari of the “Occupied Palestinian Territory department” of Physicians for Human Rights Israel — which claims Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza — who accused the Israelis of standing by as “thousands of communities” across the “West Bank” were fleeing this violence.

When told that the Israeli military was talking about Arab incitement and an increase in “copycat” (sic) Arab attacks on Jews, Ansari acknowledged there was “incitement and support”; but then doubled down on her claim that the “settlers” were “drafted and armed by the State of Israel,” as if they were an aggressive militia rather than Jews armed to defend themselves against murderous attack.

A report by the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, “The ‘Settler Violence’ Influence Warfare Campaign,” states:

A closer look at the numbers, and at how the discourse has evolved, points to a systematic, well-funded, and coordinated campaign. This campaign originates with far-left organizations such as Yesh Din, B’Tselem and Breaking the Silence, funded by the European Union, individual European governments, and international foundations. They operate alongside the Palestinian Authority and its partners, as well as various UN bodies, which use the issue to advance an anti-Israel political agenda.

The term “settler violence” did not emerge in a vacuum, nor is it the spontaneous result of local events. It reflects a constructed narrative that began to take shape more than two decades ago, alongside the escalation of Palestinian terrorism and the struggle over control in Judea and Samaria.

As early as 2004–2006, in the years following Operation Defensive Shield when the IDF was confronting a peak wave of suicide bombings, foreign and Israeli anarchist activists began appearing at friction points. They did not come solely to “defend human rights,” but also to generate filmed provocations: orchestrated confrontations with IDF soldiers, incursions into restricted areas, and demonstrations recorded on video and rapidly disseminated to the international media.

These activists, many of whom were affiliated with European and American anarchist groups, worked in coordination with Palestinian “popular committees”. Together, they produced dramatic imagery of a “violent occupation”— soldiers facing protesters, police confronting shepherds, “settlers” harassing farmers.

The footage was one-sided and at times staged. Its purpose was clear: to recast the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria as a symbol of “systematic violence” and minority oppression, rather than as the realization of historical rights or as a necessity to ensure security. During years when Palestinian terrorism claimed hundreds of Israeli lives, the campaign’s architects constructed an inverted narrative in which Jews were cast as aggressors and Palestinians as perpetual victims.

The campaign gained significant momentum in the 2010s. Organizations such as Yesh Din, B’Tselem, and Breaking the Silence began producing annual reports in which virtually every incident — whether a dispute between shepherds, property damage, or even a hike by Israelis — was classified as “settler violence”. These reports, funded largely by the European Union, European governments (including Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany), and international foundations, were systematically distributed to international institutions, foreign journalists, and diplomats. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) became a central partner in disseminating the data, establishing a dedicated database under the heading “settler-related violence”.

This situation has worsened ever since. The Israeli organization Regavim, which promotes and defends Israeli residency in the disputed territories, last year published a remarkable report showing how official statistics produced by the UN to record instances of “settler violence” are utterly bogus. Out of its total of 8,332 cases between 2016 and 2023, almost 7500 had nothing to do with violence by Israelis at all.

The UN list included as “settler violence” cases of Palestinian Arabs who were injured or killed during terrorist acts that they themselves had initiated against Jews; peaceful visits by Jews to Temple Mount in Jerusalem; Jewish tourists visiting archaeological sites; traffic accidents; and complaints about “trespassing” by Jewish tourists or hikers that involved no violence or damage to property. It also included dozens of clear cases of Arab terrorist attacks against Jews.

At the JNS security conference this year, Regavim’s international division director, Naomi Kahn, said:

Ninety-five percent or more of the incidents that are reported as settler violence by the United Nations itself either didn’t involve settlers, didn’t involve violence, or didn’t happen in Judea and Samaria.

Every time a non-Muslim visits Temple Mount on a peaceful and legal visit, she said, the UN categorizes it as “storming al Aqsa” and includes it in its database of settler violence. When the State of Israel paves a road in Judea and Samaria for use by all residents regardless of nationality, the action is recorded as trespass and expropriation.

The Regavim report describes how foreign activists arrive in Israel in an organized manner using tourist visas, as pilgrims, or as employees of organizations with valid entry permits. Together with local West Bank Arab activists and left-wing organizations, they intentionally inflame the situation through carefully orchestrated provocations or violent incidents. These provocations are all accompanied by carefully staged and meticulously edited documentation intended to produce false and exaggerated reports.

The report states:

In the South Hebron Hills, the dominant actors are typically Arab field operatives who direct Israeli and foreign activists to areas of friction. When they fail to incite a sufficiently violent and well-documented incident, they fabricate events or distort minor incidents. At times ,they even damage the property of local Arabs themselves and blame the settlers or the army.

According to B’Tselem’s own data, every Palestinian they recorded as having been killed by civilians in Judea and Samaria in 2022 was in fact killed as a result of either an attack or attempted attack carried out by that individual or by another Palestinian.”

The UN “settler violence” statistics conflate Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria with Israelis living in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel. Apparently, they’re all “settlers”. Anti-Zionist Israeli NGOs like B’Tselem or Physicians for Human Rights, which feed the UN and western journalists with anti-Israel propaganda, explicitly equate “settler violence” against Arabs with Israeli “state violence” against Arabs.

Regavim has now been sanctioned by the EU and UK on the grounds of punishing “settler violence”. It’s not hard to spot the real reason.

The EU has been funding the building of illegal Arab settlements in Area C of the disputed territories, against the terms of the Oslo agreement under which only Israel can issue construction permits for this area. Tel Aviv University’s Begin-Sadat Centre has reported that the EU and individual European countries are funding continuous waves of illegal Palestinian settlement, which are being established without permits and often without even bothering to apply for them.

The EU and UK, among others, are using the “settler violence” libel to demonize all 750,000 Jewish residents living in the disputed areas of Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, including the Old City which houses the site of the ancient Jewish Temple. This is being done to erase the Jews’ legal and historic claim to these territories, push them out and replace them by Arab colonizers to create “facts on the ground” that make a Palestine state appear inescapable.

Moreover, the falsehood that the disputed territories are “illegally occupied” would also apply by its own mendacious and ahistorical logic to the entire State of Israel. The EU and the British government have sanctioned Regavim to prevent their populations from understanding the monstrous project now under way to delegitimize and dismember Israel itself.

The “settler violence” libel is now a strategic threat to the world’s only Jewish state.