EPISODE 4: ESCALATING SETTLER VIOLENCE IN THE WEST BANK
INTRO, FRANCESCA MARIA LORENZINI. As a ceasefire took effect in Gaza on January 15 this year, violence in the West Bank escalated sharply. Israel’s “Iron Wall” operation fueled settler violence, threatening many Palestinians’ right to life.
This is “Rights Now,” let’s get started.
[INTRO]
LORENZINI. Elisabeth Hitchen is a volunteer with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel, which monitors human rights violations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since 2002. In doing so, they adhere to the principle of impartiality and international law.
ELISABETH HITCHEN. We are not pro-Palestine, not pro-Israel, we’re pro-human rights, we’re pro-international law, we’re pro-justice, and we’re pro-peace.
LORENZINI. The organization is Palestinian-led and provides protection to communities at risk of violence from illegal Israeli settlers and the military. Hitchen first joined the program in 2018 and made several trips to the West Bank, witnessing firsthand the escalation of settler and military violence.
HITCHEN. When I was there in 2019, we offered a protective presence to a farming community. The settlers would come and first of all they would try to take the sheep. And I mean literally, physically take sheep that didn’t belong to them. So if a Palestinian object, they would be heavily armed. They would attack them with baseball bats, they would attack them with guns.
They attack children going to school. They fire stones at them, they spit at them, they call them names. It’s just complete intimidation. The children are then afraid to go to school. I’ve spoken to teachers in one particular community, the teachers have said that their numbers, this was recently this year, sorry in 2024, their numbers have halved because the children are afraid to go to school and when they’re in school they can’t concentrate, they can’t even think because they’re afraid to go home. And in many cases, these children used to walk to school but maybe parents now are starting to bring them. So the parents then, their vehicles are being attacked, not just by settlers but also by the military. Some parents told us stories of how as they were driving along previously you know functional roads, a huge mound of earth would then be placed on the road preventing access. Teachers have also spoken of their intimidation, you know the teachers would come and they’ll be stopped and held at checkpoints. Their vehicles are attacked and targeted. Under international law, it’s called a coercive environment. This essentially means that you don’t have to physically use force to move people. You can make life so miserable that they leave voluntarily. They leave for fear.
LORENZINI. While settler violence is not new, it has sharply escalated since October 7. Since that day, Israeli forces have demolished around 1,500 Palestinian-owned structures in the occupied West Bank. This destruction has not only taken homes but also businesses, impacting people’s livelihoods.
Over 3,000 Palestinians were displaced, according to the United Nations. Israel justifies the actions by saying the structures were built without permits, but such permits are virtually impossible for Palestinians to obtain. UN experts have condemned these demolitions as a systematic and deliberate attempt to undermine Palestinians’ right to self-determination and as a form of collective punishment.
HITCHEN. They come around four or five a.m. They come in a huge convoy. They seal off the area. They go into the family homes. They just literally put people out of their homes, throw them out onto the street. Some of them are in their underclothes or nightclothes. They try to grab a few things that they can before the bulldozers go in and literally destroy the home.
In the past, families were given a demolition notice or an order. And the main reason that they would cite in the past was that the house was built without proper planning permission. Well 99% of planning applications by Palestinians are refused. They have to apply for these through the Israeli Civil Administration. So they refuse planning permission. So in order for families to expand and to thrive, they end up, they build without the permission. So the Israelis come along and demolish. Now in the past, like I said, they would have been given a notice, an order. So that would have given them an opportunity to appeal that through the courts. And what we noticed when we returned in late 2024 is that has all gone. There is no, there isn’t even a pretense now of following normal law and order. They come in, there’s no notice given. They come in and they demolish the homes.
LORENZINI. On January 15 this year, the same day the Gaza ceasefire began, the Israeli military attacked villages near Ramallah and Nablus. Settlers set properties on fire and threw rocks and Molotov cocktails in protest of the due release of 90 Palestinians in exchange for Israeli hostages taken during the Hamas-led attack. About a week after, Israel launched the “Iron Wall” military operation in the northern West Bank. At least 40 Palestinians were killed, over 40,000 displaced, and the Jenin refugee camp was entirely emptied.
HITCHEN. From reliable sources, friends, families that I know in the West Bank, it’s literally off the scale now. They’re out of control. Communities who I would have visited in the past no longer wanted an international presence because they were afraid of reprisals from the military or settlers. And then there’s also this fear in the back of their head that somebody’s going to be killed.
LORENZINI. In July 2024, the International Court of Justice recognized Israel’s violations of international law and its responsibility for apartheid. Israeli apartheid refers to a system of institutionalized segregation that discriminates against Palestinians in their daily life, including imposing severe restrictions on their movement and limiting their access to essential services.
HITCHEN. In the West Bank you have to have a permit literally to exist. You have to have a permit to access worship, to access health, to access your land, to access education. It is all wrapped up in this permit system.
LORENZINI. The 1994 Oslo II Accord divided the Israeli-occupied West Bank into three areas: Area C, which is fully controlled by Israel; Area A, controlled by the Palestinian Authority; and Area B, jointly managed by both. But Israel has overarching military authority throughout the West Bank, no matter the area. Most of the Palestinians live in Area A and B, but the division creates fragmented living spaces. They need permits to cross checkpoints for basic services like healthcare.
HITCHEN. Since October 7 most permits for Palestinians have been cancelled so they are unable to access health facilities. I have a friend of mine whose grandchild was receiving cancer treatment in Jerusalem. They were denied a permit, the child then is no longer able to access that treatment. So that’s just one little example. Everything is replicated across the West Bank and East Jerusalem. People are finding it very, very hard to survive.
LORENZINI. Closures of checkpoints, detentions of health workers and town sieges have made it difficult to access medical care, the WHO reported. In Hebron’s H2 area, one of the most restricted in the West Bank, clinic access for Palestinians was blocked for two months after October 7, forcing residents to climb fences and rooftops, risking their lives to get treatment.
HITCHEN. It was always extremely challenging and difficult, but since October the 7th, everything has just escalated. Everything is just multiplied by a hundred.
[OUTRO]
LORENZINI. This was “Rights Now,” by the Amman Center for Human Rights Studies. I am Francesca Maria Lorenzini, until next time take care.
