On the face of it, settler violence seems to be an out of control phenomenon in Judea and Samaria. But once you break down the numbers, it turns out there’s not much violence—and not many settlers.
I explained why in a December 2023 column for Yedioth Ahronoth, an excerpt of which is below.
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A friend with kids recently visited his sister. “Want chocolate milk?” the aunt asked, and of course, the kids shouted yes. “Okay, just so you know,” she quipped, “the powder isn’t chocolate, but rather carob powder. The milk is soy milk, and we drink it without sugar.”
I was reminded of that chocolate-less chocolate milk when I saw the UN data on settler violence—the most important issue in the world’s eyes between the river and the sea before the war broke out. Since the start of the war in Gaza, it holds the honorable second place.
But once you break down the numbers on settler violence, it turns out there’s not much violence—and not many settlers.
Dr. Michael Wolfowicz, a criminology researcher from the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, looked at the UN data. On the face of it, it’s horrifying. Between 2016 and 2022, there were no fewer than 5,656 incidents of settler violence against Palestinians. But diving into the details reveals that 1,600 of those happened in Jerusalem, almost all of which were instances of Jewish entry to the Temple Mount or police clashes with Muslims rioting there.
After further filtering, there are another 2,500 events that describe property damage or physical assault—but these include, for example, a terrorist attack carried out by a Palestinian that ended with the terrorist being killed. On April 8, 2018, Muhammad Abd al-Karim Marshoud attempted to stab Israeli civilians in Ma’ale Adumim. He was injured and died the next day. Astonishingly, in the case of Marshoud, the UN recorded two incidents of violence: On April 8, a Palestinian was shot; on April 9, the Palestinian died.
There’s more. On July 26, 2018, 30-year-old Yotam Ovadia was stabbed to death by a 17-year-old Palestinian terrorist. Here too, according to the UN, the neutralization of the terrorist by Yotam is recorded as settler violence. The same applies to a stabbing attack in the Hebron Hills; another one in Yitzhar; injuries to Arab rioters from Israeli security forces’ gunfire at Joseph’s Tomb; and entering the Tomb of Joshua.
Even traffic accidents in which settlers hit Palestinians were classified as violence.
In the end, we’re left with about twenty violent incidents per month, most of them mutual, and some reported only by Palestinians, with no verification. Even if all are true, here’s the proper comparison: according to the IDF, between 2019 and 2022 alone, there were 25,257 Palestinian attacks on settlers—a rate of 500 a year. Last year, that number jumped to 763.
The inflation of settler violence from a limited phenomenon to absurd proportions is meant to soothe the world’s conscience by creating a strange kind of symmetry for the support it gives Israel in its war against the murderous Hamas. In Israel, the campaign serves the purpose of expelling settlers and establishing a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria.
This week, the news site HaKol HaYehudi published a policy paper from a think tank funded by the New Israel Fund and a German foundation, whose goal is to vilify settlers and revive the idea of Palestinian independence.
If you will it, it is no dream.
