Dramatic Spike in Settler Violence Sadly Predictable

For the past 18 months we've been working at the Palestine Center to analyze Israeli settler violence against Palestinian civilians and their property. We've put together the most comprehensive database of Israeli settler violence available and continue to add data to our records. In April of this year we presented an analysis covering the period of September 2004-February 2011, and at the time I noted an dramatic trend:

The important news is this. A very strong, noticeable increase in Israeli settler violence over the past five years, and mind you 2011 is on pace to beat 2010. We started with an extremely violent two months of 2011 and it shows no indication of slowing down.

And it didn't slow down. Now, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in the Occupied Territories is reporting a major increase in violence:

Settler-related incidents resulting in Palestinian injuries and damage to property are up by 57 percent this year, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which documents violence in the Palestinian territories...

Palestinians have been injured by settlers this year at double the rate of 2010... So far this year, 178 Palestinians have been stoned, run down or shot at by settlers, compared to a total of 176 for the whole of 2010. Three Palestinians have been killed by settlers this year.

It seems like we were right. The troubling part is that, when you study settler violence over time you realize that the most dramatic spike that comes on an annual basis is during the olive harvest season -- at the end of October. With a 57% increase in violence by July, the number of violent incidents against Palestinian civilians may well double last year's numbers.

The entire presentation is available here and you can also read through a number of posts we have authored on settler violence focusing on various aspects including, the Israeli state's failure to properly punish perpetrators of settler violence, how Palestinian livestock is threatened, how Hebron is ground zero for settler violence, how the media fails to cover settler violence and the use of different tactics by settlers like vehicular attacks and arson.

Interestingly, from 2006-2011 we have only seen increases in settler violence with each year topping the previous one. In fact, in the 5 years from 2006-2010 we have seen a 152% increase in settler violence incidents. During the same period of time, as reported recently by Obama administration officials to the Congress, "terrorist violence" from the West Bank is down 96%.

With such an inverse relationship between the numbers (and keep in mind settler violence doesn't include other methods of violence used against Palestinians by the occupation, mostly by the IDF) Palestinians have every reason to question who is really benefiting from PA-Israel security cooperation. The answer is simple and the numbers don't lie; it is definitely NOT the Palestinians.

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