The myth of 'settler violence' - opinion

How many violent incidents between individuals in a foreign country warrant the attention and repeated mention of the American State Department, the secretary of State, and the president of the United States of America? To warrant attention from the highest and most powerful people of the world these incidents must be so heinous and so frequent that by their nature they alter the course of global events. 

It’s curious how the “settler violence,” rare and infrequent especially in relation to the daily Palestinian terrorism which occurs in the same region – justifies the attention and repeated mention of the US president. 

In the first weeks of the war, President Joe Biden said the attacks by “extremist settlers” amounted to “pouring gasoline” on the already burning fires in the Middle East since the Hamas attack. 

“It has to stop. They have to be held accountable. It has to stop now,” Biden said.

The myth of “settler violence” greatly disturbs me, and not just because I’m a “settler.” 

When I mention the issue I take at the gross exaggeration of the few incidents of violence by Jewish “settlers,” I am met by some with disbelief. They retort that if it wasn’t really a problem, the media and the president wouldn’t mention it as often as they do. Others, who accept my arguments, tell me to stay silent and just go along with the narrative, as it allows limited criticism of Israel so that America and other powers can seem balanced as they support Israel in the war.

The truth must be defended

However, I believe that if truth means anything in this world, it must be defended by all – political concerns aside. 

There are more than 500,000 Jews who live in the region of Judea and Samaria, the area global nations, media, and activists prefer to call “The West Bank.” The overwhelming majority of these Jews choose to live in these areas for comfort, convenience, or economic advantages. They aren’t ideologues and they’re not violent. They believe they have a right to live in this area just as much as Jerusalem or Tel Aviv. 

These people, often called “settlers” by the international community maintain (as have successive Israeli governments) that the reading of international law that Israel is not allowed to build communities in Judea and Samaria is incorrect. They believe that the land is historically Jewish and is the heartland of the Jewish homeland. They obviously have no moral qualms about living on land they maintain is part of their historical homeland. They don’t believe a Jew should be denied the ability to live somewhere just because they are a Jew.

They believe that the United Nations 1947 partition plan that would establish an independent Arab state on historic Jewish land was a mistake, and that the Arab rejection of the partition negated any claim the Arabs have to the region. Some Israelis are nevertheless willing to give up parts of Judea and Samaria to establish a Palestinian state as part of a peace deal that would end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

Like any population, the Jewish community in Judea and Samaria has its outliers, and some can be extreme and violent. This is no different than any other community in the world. Most communities are peaceful and contribute to their cities and countries. Although every community has its criminals, they are outliers. It would be racist to make assumptions about an entire community and claim it has a crime problem because of the few outliers in its community. The same is true of the settler community. It is a peaceful community that contributes to Israel and the world. To claim there is a “settler violence” problem is to vilify an entire community based on the actions of their outliers. 

“Settlers” and their advocates become furious when they read headlines about rising “settler violence.” The articles bring almost no evidence of a crime, let alone a crime committed by a settler. I challenge you to Google a few of these articles. They are almost always based on the “eyewitness” account of one Palestinian who witnessed the crime from afar. From this Palestinian’s vantage point, he was able to witness the crime, see who committed it, and identify the criminal as being part of a specific community. Most people don’t realize that eyewitness testimony is so unreliable that there’s a phenomenon where eyewitnesses get the accused’s race wrong! It’s called cross-racial misidentification. If eyewitnesses can often get the criminal’s race wrong, are we to believe Palestinians from afar can identify a criminal’s location of residence?

Sometimes, the reports of violence are reported by an anti-”settler” (anti-”occupation”) NGO. These are activists who travel to Palestinian communities to hear about their troubles. The odds that an NGO representative happened to be standing near a Palestinian while he got attacked and was able to identify the attacker’s place of residence and community is absurdly small. Yet, the media believes these reports as if they are gospel. 

There’s rarely any evidence of crimes committed by settlers that substantiate these crimes. Instead of the lack of evidence setting off alarm bells that Palestinians and their apologists are falsifying reports, the media points to the lack of arrests and convictions as evidence of Israel not doing enough to stop the violence.

It’s the theater of the absurd come to life in Judea and Samaria. It has never dawned on the media, foreign governments, or activists that the one eyewitness, a biased NGO, and lack of any corroborating evidence should all point to the lack of a crime committed by a settler. 

I’m not claiming there are never any incidents of “settler violence.” I am claiming that they are not representative of the settler community or ideology and are so rare that they should be considered statistically insignificant. They certainly do not deserve the amount of attention of global media, the State Department, and the President of the United States.

Settlers are an easy community to pick on and an easy way to score points with Palestinian sympathizers demanding the media, government, and activists balance their strong support for Israel in its war in Gaza. 

While all of Israel is enamored with president Biden’s support during this time, it is wholly inappropriate for the State Department and the president of the United States to rely on inaccuracies and criticize Israel about a statistically insignificant issue – an issue so rare that it wouldn’t be considered an issue in any other realm. 

The claim of a scourge of settler violence is nothing but a lie and should be treated as such. If the world wants to focus on violence that is an impediment to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it should focus on Palestinian terrorism. 

The writer is a certified interfaith hospice chaplain in Jerusalem and the mayor of Mitzpe Yeriho, Israel. She lives with her husband and six children.