Recent Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank has caused the largest wave of forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes since October, a humanitarian group has reported, just weeks after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued its landmark ruling against Israel’s settlements in Palestine.
Over the past two weeks, Israeli settlers have forced 119 Palestinians to flee their homes, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has reported. These attacks forced nearly every family in these communities to evacuate as settlers erected illegal outposts and blocked access to water.
The three communities, Al-Farsiya Khallet Khader, Al-Farisiya al-Zu’bi and Ein al-Hilweh — Um al-Jmal have been nearly entirely evacuated, save for one family. In Al-Farsiya Khallet Khader, settlers looted the region after forcing Palestinians to leave, stealing tents.
This displacement wave comes just a month after the ICJ ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestine and settlements are illegal and that Israel must end them “as rapidly as possible.” A mob of Israeli settlers also recently carried out a violent raid on the Palestinian West Bank town of Jit, setting houses and cars on fire and shooting at Palestinians while Israeli soldiers looked on.
The ruling has spurred experts to call on international leaders to do everything in their power to pressure Israel and Israeli settlers to stop their settlement expansion and apartheid, including academic and business boycotts of Israel and a global arms embargo. If international powers continue sending resources to Israel, they could be, themselves, in breach of international law, experts have said.
Israeli leaders openly snub international humanitarian law on a regular basis, and, indeed, Israeli settler violence is not just accepted but condoned by Israeli officials like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is currently leading Israel’s campaign to effectively annex the West Bank.
“Israeli authorities, as the occupying power, bear direct responsibility for the actions of violent settlers,” said Allegra Pacheco, chief of party of the NRC’s West Bank Protection Consortium, in a statement. “These attacks, occurring in broad daylight under the watching eyes and the protective force of the Israeli military, highlight the unlawfulness of Israel’s presence in the West Bank, as recently ruled by the International Court of Justice. Palestinians are being forced to leave their land in what clearly constitutes a grave breach of international humanitarian law.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said that the Biden administration bears responsibility for the settlers’ violence due to its unconditional and unending support for the “openly racist, far-right and increasingly out-of-control Israeli government.”
“These latest acts of ethnic cleansing are happening because the Israeli government does not expect to face any accountability or real consequences from President [Joe] Biden,” said CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, in a statement responding to NRC’s report. “The Biden administration must, at long last, use American financial leverage to force the Israeli government to end the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the West Bank and stop the genocide in Gaza.”
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