Hardly a week goes by without reports in the Israeli and international media about Jewish residents of the West Bank attacking Palestinian villagers.
Just this week, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Norway announced that they would freeze assets and bar the entry of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich for having “incited extremist violence” against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Ben-Gvir has been criticized by opponents for not ordering police to crack down on attacks by Jews against Palestinians, and even giving tacit approval. But how widespread is violence by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank?
According to a new 125-page report, “False Flags and Real Agendas,” by Regavim, a right-wing organization that says it is dedicated to the protection of Israel’s national lands and resources, the answer is complicated.
The report explores allegations of “settler violence,” by analyzing the UN database, which documents violent incidents in Judea and Samaria. The report alleges that the “settler violence” narrative is a weapon in the battle to delegitimize the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria and the State of Israel.
Looking into reported settler violence
On his first day in office in January, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order rolling back sanctions implemented last year by his predecessor Joe Biden to target violence by settlers in the West Bank.
In September 2024, just one year after the most violent and savage attack on Israelis, in his speech at the UN General Assembly, Biden asserted “As we look ahead, we must also address the rise of violence against innocent Palestinians on the West Bank.” His administration proceeded to levy sanctions against “extremist Israeli individuals and organizations.”
The Regavim report probes reports on “settler violence,” issued by the UN through the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs website, that document and track incidents of nationalist violence in Judea, Samaria, and east Jerusalem. These incidents are categorized based on their outcomes: fatalities or physical injuries, property damage, and incidents without damage or injury.
According to Regavim, the OCHA database and table list 8,332 “incidents involving Israeli settlers and other Israeli civilians” in the West Bank or Israel (excluding Gaza) from January 11, 2016, to April 30, 2023. Regavim alleges that the database and table use circular information sources, face significant credibility issues, lack synchronization between table and database, and present a misleading, distorted, and highly exaggerated picture, often inflated by hundreds or thousands of percent.
According to the Regavim report, the OCHA database labels as settler violence instances where Palestinians were injured or killed during terrorist acts they themselves initiated against Israeli civilians in Judea, Samaria, and the rest of the country. Additionally, Regavim says the database undercounts incidents of violence perpetrated by Palestinian Arabs and the number of Israeli casualties – compared to official Israeli government data.
Yesh Din is named in the Regavim report as the main proponent of disseminating the concept of settler violence. According to the website of the left-wing organization, which was “established in 2005 to protect the human rights of Palestinians living under Israeli armed forces’ occupation,” since 2005 it has tracked 1,701 police investigation files concerning offenses by Israelis against Palestinians in the West Bank (excluding east Jerusalem). The organization says that 93.8% were closed after the investigation without any charges being filed. Most of these cases were closed due to police failure to identify suspects or gather sufficient evidence, and just 3% of cases ended up in a conviction.
Regavim says that 1,356 files were opened by the police in Judea and Samaria on suspicion of Jewish nationalist violence. Investigations were launched in 537 of these cases. Regavim notes that some of these offenses had no connection to violence or nationalist events, such as car theft or drug possession, and concludes that the reasons for closing cases (between 2014 and 2024) related to Jewish nationalist violence in Judea and Samaria were: “circumstances not justifying prosecution” (8%), lack of evidence (19%), or unknown offender (72%) – similar to the national average for case closures on these grounds, for both Jewish and Arab nationalist crimes. Thus, the official data from the Israel Police contradict the claims of Yesh Din.
This raises the question, were the cases closed due to lack of evidence and inability to find the offender, or, as Yesh Din alleges, because law enforcement agencies do not take settler violence seriously, enhancing the perpetrators’ sense of immunity and encouraging the recurrence of these acts?
Yesh Din says that between January 2023 and September 30, 2024, it documented 328 incidents of harm to Palestinians, but in 60.6% of the incidents, the crime victims chose not to file a complaint. In 2024, it says, the rate climbed to 66% (101 of 153 incidents documented by the organization).
Yesh Din alleges that, in most cases, complainants cited mistrust of the Israeli authorities and the investigation process as the reason for not filing a complaint, while some expressed fear that filing a complaint would harm them or result in their Israeli work or entry permit being revoked.
But can you rely on lack of complainants to tell the story of omission? Or do complaints dismissed by Israel Police indeed reflect lack of evidence?
“Regavim cross-referenced data with Israel Police reports to see which incidents were actually true violence,” explained Naomi Kahn, international director of Regavim. “We found that 98% of the incidents didn’t involve settlers, didn’t involve violence, and some didn’t necessarily take place in Judea or Samaria.”
She said that findings showed that the “settler violence” numbers included IDF military operations in Jenin or Tulkarm against known terrorists, and even peaceful, lawful, supervised visits by Jews to the Temple Mount or other ancient historic sites.
In late 2023, Dror Sadot, former spokesperson for B’Tselem, said in an interview, “No one is keeping track of statistics. We have a lot of documentation.
We rely largely on videos and witness accounts. Because we know that what we have is not everything, we cannot keep statistical information.”
And that, according to Kahn, is one of the problems. “Nothing is verified. Everything is based on unfounded reports; there is no corroboration.”
Kahn alleged that witnesses are frequently provocateurs, known to go into disputed areas to stir up both sides and create incidents. As soon as things get heated, they take out their cameras. According to Kahn, the videos are edited and events are taken out of context to fit the “violence” narrative.
In the United Nations records, the incidents lumped together as “settler violence” included traffic accidents in which Palestinian Authority cars were involved, incidents where a PA terrorist tried to stab, shoot, or otherwise attack a Jew and the Jew fought back in self-defense, and Palestinian confrontations with IDF forces during army operations.
Kahn said when Israel legally paves a road or puts up electric cables or other infrastructure on a shared road, “the records claim the road-workers are trespassing. It is entered to the report as a violent incident.”
“Nongovernment organizations like B’Tselem, which are funded by European donors, provide the information, and then the UN releases it as fact,” added Kahn. “And the international media simply prints it.”
She said that just as the media continue to parrot Hamas/Gaza health system statistics after they have been discredited, international media pounce on the inflated figures depicting settler violence.
“It’s not just benign badmouthing. It has massive implications – sanctions, arms embargoes.
“Why did we have to sue the Israeli police with a freedom of information petition to get the information?” Kahn asked. “The government of Israel has been silent and allowed this monster to grow.”
Regavim will be presenting its findings to Knesset members within the next few weeks.
“We are not saying there is never any violence by settlers, but the majority of cases are dismissed by the police altogether,” said Kahn.
“When he was prime minister, Naftali Bennett’s first conversation with [then US president] Joe Biden was about settler violence. He immediately instituted weekly meetings to report on this nonexistent phenomenon. As this was gathering steam, the narrative gave cover to the worst attack in Israel’s history.”
In April, after dozens of masked settlers descended on the Palestinian village of Duma and set fire to several homes, The Democrats chairman Yair Golan claimed that the government was “unleashing violence in the West Bank.”
“The pogrom in Duma is not a glitch – it is the result of a deliberate policy,” Golan wrote on X. “The government is empowering rioters and unleashing violence in the West Bank, creating a permanent security emergency in order to survive politically.”
Regarding the claim that the government turns a blind eye to the violent settlers, Kahn said that the opposite is the case.
“We found there is over-enforcement against Israelis,” she explained, “while Arab perpetrators are usually not indicted until they manage to actually hurt someone. There have been far more laser blinding, burning tires, rock throwing [by Arabs], Molotov cocktails thrown at Jews, yet the number of [recorded] Arab terror attacks is smaller than the number of Jewish attacks recorded. Arab violence is off the charts, yet Jewish attacks are punished more aggressively.”