Israeli Settler Violence - Law Enforcement Action Against Settlers

Law Enforcement Action Against Settlers

The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict reported on rioting and violence in the West Bank in the period preceding the Israeli military operations in Gaza. The report said "Little if any action is taken by the Israeli authorities to investigate, prosecute and punish violence against Palestinians, including killings, by settlers and members of the security forces, resulting in a situation of impunity. The Mission concludes that Israel has failed to fulfil its obligations to protect the Palestinians from violence by private individuals under both international human rights law and international humanitarian law. The report also stated that the International Court of Justice advisory opinion and "a number of United Nations resolutions have all affirmed that Israel’s practice of constructing settlements – in effect, the transfer by an occupying Power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies – constitutes a breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention".

According to Amos Harel, attempts by the security forces to bring violent rightwing zealots to justice has suffered from two main problems: investigating Israelis as opposed to Palestinians is subject to more restrictions, and courts have proved to be lenient Yesh Din has produced a report, "A Semblance of Law", which found problems with law enforcement actions against Israelis in the West Bank. According to Yesh Din's study, which was conducted in 2005, more than 90% of complaints against Israelis were closed without indictments mainly due to perpetrators not being found, 96% of trespassing cases (including sabotage of trees) against Israelis led to no indictment, 100% of vandalism and other property offences against Israelis led to no indictment and 5% of complaints against Israelis were lost and never investigated.

As well as collecting statistics, Yesh Din examined 42 closed investigation files and found a number of shortcomings, including the use of Hebrew to record testimonies given in Arabic: frequent failure to check the scene where the alleged offense took place: often not taking down eye-witness testimonies: widespread lack of recourse to live identification line-ups with suspected Israeli civilians; hardly any confrontations between complaintants and suspects: failure to check alibis: hasty closure of files shortly after the complaint was registered: closing of files even when evidence was sufficient to indict suspects: police refusing to register complaints, and pressure from the Civilian Administration being used to avoid filing complaints.

8% of complaints resulted in indictments. The Israeli Justice Ministry responded by stating that legal authorities were closely following specific cases, but said that it was not in its authority to deal with every case.

Israeli security sources have said that it has become customary for some settlers to take the law into their own hands in the wake of terror attacks in the West Bank.

In the years 2008-2009, the defense establishment began taking a harder line against unruly settlers.

In 2012 two EU heads of mission reports stated that Israel's security operations in the occupied territories had failed to protect the Palestinian population, it accused the Israel of setting up its operations to minimize the impact on settlers of an ongoing campaign of settler violence. The reports noted that "Over 90% of monitored complaints regarding settler violence filed by Palestinians with the Israeli police in recent years have been closed without indictment," and further added that, "discriminatory protections and privileges for settlers compound these abuses and create an environment in which settlers can act with apparent impunity."