Jewish Settlers Attack Palestinian Vehicles in Northern West Bank

Jewish settlers attacked Palestinian vehicles in West Bank. (Photo: File)

November 23, 2020

Jewish settlers today intercepted and attacked Palestinian vehicles traveling between Nablus and Qalqilya in the north of the West Bank, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activities in the north of the West Bank, said that a group of club-yielding settlers intercepted Palestinian vehicles traveling along the Nablus-Qalqilya Road, close to the entrance of the illegal Yitzhar colonial settlement, notorious for its violent settlers, and attacked them, causing damage to some of them and terrifying the passengers.

Daghlas said the use of clubs is a new phenomenon in the settlers’ violence against Palestinian civilians when previously all the attacks were with rocks.

Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.

“Jewish settler violence should not be analyzed separately from the violence meted out by the Israeli army, but seen within the larger context of the violent Zionist ideology that governs Israeli society entirely,” wrote Palestinian author and editor of The Palestine Chronicle, Ramzy Baroud.

“Settler violence has long since become part of Palestinians’ daily life under occupation,” according to the Human Rights Group B’tselem. “Israeli security forces enable these actions, which result in Palestinian casualties – injuries and fatalities – as well as damage to land and property. In some cases, they even serve as an armed escort, or even join in the attacks”.

Between 500,000 and 600,000 Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law.