At least six Palestinian communities have already fled their homes, terrorized by settlers working in the service of the state
Driving shepherds off their fields, physically assaulting local residents, invading their homes in the middle of the night, setting fires, scaring flocks, vandalizing crops, stealing property, blocking roads and destroying water tanks – this is what settlers do to Palestinians day in and day out forcing a horrifying routine on dozens of Palestinian communities. This incessant violence is encouraged by the state and serves it. With no one to protect them and having no other choice, at least six communities have fled their homes in the past two years. Dozens more are in immediate danger of forced displacement.
In a new publication released today (Monday, 18 September 2023), B’Tselem determines that Israel is carrying out a forcible transfer. Israel works to make the lives of residents in communities located in areas it wishes to take over unbearable forcing them to leave their homes and lands.
This policy has two components: On one track - cleared by military orders, legal advisers and the Supreme Court - Israel expels Palestinians from their lands. On the other, parallel track, settlers use violence against Palestinians, aided and abetted by all state authorities, and sometimes, with their participation. In the publication, B’Tselem stresses that members of the current government, some of whom have personally led the violence in the past, encourage and bolster these attacks. They praise violent settlers and erase, with their actions, even the appearance of a functioning law enforcement system: a minister calls to “erase Huwarah,” members of parliament pay a hospital visit to an Israeli suspected of killing a Palestinian, ministers refuse to condemn the violence and condone one pogrom inside Palestinian communities after another.
This is an illegal policy that implicates Israel in the war crime of forcible transfer. International law, which Israel is obligated to respect and has undertaken to abide by, forbids the forcible transfer of residents of an occupied territory - no matter the circumstances. The fact that this case does not involve soldiers arriving at residents’ homes and physically forcing them out does not detract from the state’s responsibility: creating a coercive environment that leaves residents no other choice is sufficient to find Israel liable for this crime.