**Trigger warning: This article contains descriptions of violence.**
Small towns are surrounded by tall concrete walls that are topped with barbed wire, sometimes electric. Security cameras are always watching, swirling left and right, each and every movement captured by their red, blinking eyes. Men with sidelocks walk with guns holstered into their belts, their tizizit—ritual fringes—brushing against the metal. Holiness and wickedness, touching briefly, then departing again. You can practically smell the tension in the air as you drive down the highways, gazing at the hills dotted with settlements and villages. There, in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights, pockets of extremism are found. They are isolated, but unable to be contained. They are protected by guns and towering walls, but not all dwelling on the land are allowed the comfort of this safety.
Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are recognized by the international community as illegal. The Fourth Geneva Convention, which was ratified in August of 1949, specifically addresses the humanitarian protections for civilians living in occupied territories. Article 49 states that “the Occupying Power [Israel] shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies [the West Bank and Gaza strip].” [1] Although Israel ratified the Fourth Geneva Convention in 1951, its policies pertaining to settlements in occupied Palestine directly violate that decision. [2] As such, there has been continued calls for Israel to disband the illegal settlements, which are mostly state-sponsored. The United Nations reports, as of May 2023, there were 700,000 documented Israeli settlers illegally living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. [3]
In May of 2023, the Israeli parliament, which is under the control of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing bloc, passed the state’s 2023-24 budget, which dedicated $941 million—3.5 billion Israeli shekels—to improving and expanding settlements, according to TRT World. [4] It was announced that this funding would partially contribute to the building and upgrading of roads that exclusively connect settlements to each other, alongside other initiatives such as economic incentives for Israelis to join these projects. [5] Israeli settlements are not only well protected, but contain thriving, growing communities. [6] But outside of each shiny bubble, life for others on the same land is much more bleak.
Within the occupied territories, Palestinians live under the constant threat of not just Israeli military and police violence, but also brutality inflicted by settlers. For years, there have been countless incidents of Israeli settlers attacking Palestinians with little to no impunity. As settlers still fall under Israeli civil law, they are essentially awarded the same legal treatment as those who reside within the formal state. A 19-year study conducted by Yesh Din, an Israeli NGO, found that 93.7 percent of police investigations into settler violence alleged against Palestinians were closed without an indictment. Only three percent ended in convictions. [7] Extremist Israeli settlers have brutally murdered, beaten and tortured Palestinian civilians, including children and the elderly. [8] Olive farms have been destroyed, with some having trees ripped out of the ground and others set ablaze. [9] There have been attacks on mosques and monasteries; places of worship marred with hateful graffiti. [10] Homes and vehicles have been set ablaze, leaving families with nowhere to turn. [11] And in the wake of Oct. 7, 2023 and the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, settler violence has only increased, along with the staggering death toll of Palestinians in Gaza.
A search for the rationale for these heinous crimes, or even the mere existence of settlements, will prove to be unfruitful. In my experience, some argue that the West Bank and Gaza are Israeli land, and as such, should be inhabited by Israeli Jews. Increasing the number of Israelis living in occupied Palestine represents ongoing and future efforts to establish an independent state. Others argue that building settlements is a religious duty, reinforced in the ideology of messianic religious Zionism. Many choose to move because it is cheaper to live in the settlements in the state of Israel. But none of these factors can explain away or excuse the violence against Palestinians and the destruction of property or nature. It simply boils down feelings of entitlement to the land.
It is well-understood that the area of Israel/Palestine is religiously and historically significant to multiple religious and ethnic groups. Muslims, Jews and Christians maintain strong ties to Jerusalem, for example, and there is no disputing this reality. However, this connection has been warped, distorted and reassembled into feelings of entitlement, and by extension, rationalization for the atrocious acts carried out in its name. Unbridled and unwarranted killings, arson attacks and harassment cannot and are not excused or encouraged in the Jewish tradition. Harboring an intense affinity for an area does not result in purposeful violence, entitlement spurred on by prejudice and hate does. And as these horrific events are overlooked, excused and even encouraged by the Israeli government and officials, things will only get worse. The systemic dehumanization of the Palestinian people manifests in more than the Israeli occupation and ongoing ethnic cleansing—it also appears in the minds of hundreds of settlers. When this dehumanization is combined with entitlement, the results are destructive—and can be seen in the beatings, shootings and daily harassment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Where has the “mine and thine” mentality gone? Across the globe, and even in Israel, hopes for a two-state solution have long been embraced, but the rising number of settlers in the occupied territories is degrading that dream by the minute. The mentality of extremist settlers is propped up by Israel’s government, facilitating vigilantism that occurs in the pursuit of destroying what remains of the state of Palestine. And as the size of the West Bank and Gaza shrinks, the Palestinian people are left even more vulnerable. Settler violence is the manifestation of entitlement, of “what’s yours is mine,” or perhaps more accurately, “what little you have left is mine.” At the end of the day, when the sun sets over the desert, ringing out its last drops of warmth, more than just light disappears from the sky. Yet another and another and another life has been taken at the hands of those who believe they have the right to. As families watch their homes be destroyed, as thousands line up for aid and body bags pile up, the land they love mourns silently, singing a decades-old song.
SOURCES:
[1] https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.33_GC-IV-EN.pdf
[2] https://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/israel/hebron6-04.htm
[5] https://www.dw.com/en/israel-lures-settlers-with-financial-incentives/a-16487892
[6] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israeli-settlements-what-it-s-live-inside-divided-land-n701456
[8] https://www.timesofisrael.com/un-agency-reports-nearly-600-settler-attacks-over-past-six-months/
[9] https://jacobin.com/2023/11/west-bank-israeli-settlers-palestinian-olive-trees-violence-occupation
[11] https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2023/2/27/photos-israeli-settlers-rampage-in-northern-west-bank