Responding to the latest acts of state-driven Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank over the weekend, which also targeted a delegation of European diplomats and a Washington Post photojournalist, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Heba Morayef, said:
“Once again, Israel’s apartheid system is turning the olive harvest into a season of horror for Palestinian families across the occupied West Bank. State-driven attacks by settlers on farmers that damage, destroy and steal crops, combined with Israeli military restrictions on access to groves, are causing immense suffering and economic loss for Palestinians.
“The series of attacks by settlers over the weekend against Palestinian residents of Khirbet Abu Falah and Taybeh in the Ramallah area, which also targeted a Washington Post photojournalist and a delegation of European diplomats, offer a glimpse into a reality of relentless aggression against Palestinians. Attempts by senior Israeli officials and electoral candidates across the political spectrum to portray this state-sponsored brutality as the work of a few individuals are a blatant distortion of reality.
“Amnesty International has long been sounding the alarm over the exponential rise in state-driven settler violence against Palestinians, which has sought, through terror-inspiring means, to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from the occupied West Bank. This rise of violence has been fuelled by the international community’s persistent failure to take meaningful action against the very system enabling the continued oppression of Palestinians. These attacks must generate a strong response by states that claim to oppose Israel’s annexation of Palestinian territory, its continuous settlement expansion and state-driven settler violence.
“States must recognize that settler attacks are not isolated acts, but a central policy of the Israeli state and take concrete measures to respect their obligations under in
… [more]
