UN: rise in attacks by settlers in West Bank
UN investigators said there was a sharp increase in the rate of attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in recent months.
Those responsible often eluded justice, the investigators said.
Three human rights experts including Michael Lynk, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, said 771 attacks were carried out last year.
More than 210 incidents were recorded in the first three months of this year, including one attack in which a Palestinian was killed, the experts said.
“We call upon the Israeli military and police to investigate and prosecute these violent acts with vigour and resolve,” they said.
The settler attacks last year resulted in injuries to 133 Palestinians and caused damage to 184 vehicles and about 10,000 trees, mostly near Jerusalem, Hebron, Nablus and Ramallah.
“They primarily target the livelihoods of rural Palestinians, vandalising livestock, agricultural lands, trees and homes,” the experts said.
“Besides the presence and expansion of Israeli settlements, which are intended to establish illegal claims for Israeli sovereignty, settler violence is meant to make the daily lives of Palestinians untenable.”
Last month in southern Hebron, a Palestinian couple with eight children was attacked by 10 Israeli settlers, some of them armed.
The experts said the children were traumatised by the incident and the couple required medical treatment.
More than 70 families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem face the threat of eviction to make way for new settler homes, the experts said.
“We are deeply worried by the atmosphere of impunity in which these attacks are taking place,” they said.
“In many cases, the Israeli military has been present, or nearby, and has not taken sufficient steps to protect the Palestinians from this violence.”
The officials behind the report were Mr Lynk, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, UN special rapporteur on adequate housing, and independent expert Claudia Mahler.
Israel’s mission to the UN did not immediately respond to The National’s request for comment.
The report on settler attacks comes as peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel have ground to a halt and there is uncertainty on the political horizon for both sides.
The Palestinians are preparing to hold long-delayed elections next month and Israel went to the polls for the fourth time in two years last month.
Those elections have not yet produced a stable government and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on trial for corruption.
The Palestinians seek an independent state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza – all territory seized by Israel in 1967. Most countries across the world regard the settlements as illegal.