Hi, I’m Eve. With so many big news stories, I must confess that there hasn’t been much coverage of the escalating violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, which is a key element of Israel’s ongoing campaign of genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. The conflict in Gaza, the successful Houthi attacks on shipping, Israel’s continued military threats against Lebanon, and (so far) the pretense of peace talks all serve, whether by accident or design, as a cover for Israel’s ongoing human rights violations in the West Bank.
By Jake Johnson, Common Dreams staff writer. A common dream
A coalition of aid agencies on Friday called on the international community to take concrete and punitive measures against the Israeli government and settlers after settler attacks in the occupied West Bank surpassed 1,000 since October 7.
The Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA), a group of international organizations working in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said: statement The rate of attacks by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank has doubled since the same period last year, from an average of two to four per day.
“These attacks left 10 people dead, including at least two children, and injured at least 234 others, including 20 children. Since October 7, settler violence and movement restrictions have forced 1,260 people, including 600 children, to flee. The displaced households belong to 20 nomadic and Bedouin communities across Area C in the West Bank. As one survivor of settler violence explained, “There is no safe place here.”
“Settler violence is planned and orchestrated by organized groups in known settlements and settlement areas, with the support of the Israeli government and local settlement councils,” the group added. Limited sanctions Restrictions imposed by the United States and the European Union on individual settlers “have failed to reduce the frequency of attacks.”
“Although several people have been detained, no civilians or soldiers have been charged in connection with these 1,000 attacks,” AIDA said. “Some of the illegal settlement farms run by sanctioned settlers, many of whom have reportedly been at the center of multiple violent incidents, receive hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of material support through the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Settlements, the Ministry of Defense’s Settlement Administration, and local and regional settlement councils.”
AIDA called on the international community to “adopt new restrictive measures targeting not only individual settlers but also specific organizations and state agents that incite violence or take part in attacks against Palestinian civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
The group also argued that the far-right Israeli government “must be held accountable for repeated, evidence-based allegations that the military and other state authorities condone, encourage and sometimes participate in settler violence.”
A Human Rights Watch report released in April found It accused the Israeli army of “failing or failing to protect Palestinians from violent settler attacks in the West Bank.” Evacuated Since October 7, people from 20 communities have been forcibly evicted and at least seven communities have been completely uprooted.”
The AIDA statement was made by the Israeli government Announced The seizure of approximately five square miles of land in the West Bank is the largest land seizure made by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in more than 30 years.
Sally Abi Khalil, Middle East and North Africa director for AIDA member Oxfam International, said on Friday that settler attacks in the West Bank had reached an “alarming milestone.”
“With the legalization of bases progressing rapidly, Israel “Israel is stealing more and more land,” Khalil said. “Foreign governments must act now to take meaningful steps to hold the Israeli government and the perpetrators of these attacks accountable and to stop this unlawful expropriation.”
