(JNS) Mainstream media outlets reported on July 12 that a Palestinian with American citizenship, Sayafollah Musallet, was murdered—beaten to death by Jewish “settlers” in Judea and Samaria (aka the West Bank). Yet no hard proof of this alleged crime has been produced. In fact, according to Israeli police, there is “no complaint, no autopsy, no evidence.” Nevertheless, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has asked Israeli authorities to “aggressively investigate” the incident.
Legacy media, left-wing politicians, and certain NGOs consistently use the myth of “settler violence” in Judea and Samaria (aka, the West Bank) to mischaracterize Jewish residents who live there as violent extremists who have no right to live in their ancestral homeland.
Violence by Israeli Jewish residents in Judea and Samaria is grossly exaggerated and pales in comparison to the number of Palestinian terrorist attacks against Jews. Furthermore, claims of settler violence are based on false statistics and bogus accounts by the United Nations and left-wing NGOs, which are then parroted by mainstream media.
A closer look at the facts tells a much different story. Many incidents of settler violence recorded by the United Nations don’t involve violence. Some incidents recorded don’t involve settlers. The United Nations even considers car accidents as acts of settler violence.
When settlers are involved in violent incidents, it is often they who are the victims. Many of the same media outlets that published stories about Musallet’s murder didn’t bother to get the Jewish residents’ account of how the events leading up to his death transpired. If they did, they would know that it was Palestinians who attacked first.
Tragically, the overwhelmingly law-abiding Jewish community in Judea and Samaria is unjustly vilified by those who promote a false narrative in which Jews are intruders and aggressors on “Palestinian” land. But Jews have every right to live in Judea and Samaria, and it is Palestinians who are the main perpetrators of violence in the disputed territory.
The numbers do not back up the narrative of out-of-control settler violence. The United Nations claims that between January 2016 and April 2023, there were 8,332 cases of settler violence. But an analysis of these statistics in a report by Israeli NGO Regavim proves that just a tiny fraction of reported cases could be classified as settler violence.
Many of the cases include those in which Jews were the victims. Moreover, 20% of the incidents recorded didn’t even take place in Judea and Samaria. But perhaps most damning is the fact that many of the incidents recorded by the United Nations didn’t involve violence at all. The United Nations included such dubious acts of “settler violence” as traffic accidents, Israeli school trips to archeological sites, hikers trespassing accidentally, state infrastructure work by Israeli authorities and visits by Jews to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, not remotely violent acts. In fact, Regavim reported that upon filtering out these irrelevant cases, just 10%, 833 of the 8,332 cases cited by the United Nations, remain.
Palestinian terrorism against Jews dwarfs settler violence. Assuming that there were just 833 cases of genuine settler violence between January 2016 and April 2023, the yearly average for cases of settler violence in that period was just 110, fewer than 10 incidents a month. By contrast, in one year alone, 2024, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) recorded 6,828 Palestinian terrorist attacks. In other words, attacks by Palestinian terrorists are more than 60 times more frequent than incidents of settler violence.
Media, NGOs and certain politicians overexaggerate settler violence. If you read the headlines, you would think that violence by Israeli Jewish residents, or “settlers,” is out of control. Last week, for example, Time magazine published the headline, “Israeli settler violence escalates in the West Bank after death of Palestinian-American.” Also last week, Yahoo News published a headline saying, “UN reports surge in settler violence against West Bank Palestinians.”
Certain NGOs also overexaggerate settler violence. The website of Israeli leftist human rights organization Yesh Din, for instance, asserts that “incidents of violence by Israeli civilians against Palestinians and their property are a daily occurrence throughout the West Bank.” This claim is repeated on the website of B’Tselem, another left-wing Israeli NGO, which has labeled Israel an apartheid state.
Some world leaders have also taken aim at Israel for settler violence. Last year, for instance, the Biden administration imposed sanctions on several Jewish and Israeli groups and individuals, blaming them for stoking violence. Similar sanctions have been imposed by the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Japan and Canada.
Accounts of settler violence leave out crucial information. For example, media outlets like CNN, NBC and CBS failed to mention that when Musallet was killed, it was Palestinians who began hostilities.
Indeed, the Binyamin Regional Council, responsible for municipal governance in the part of Judea and Samaria in which the murder took place, called the incident a premeditated terror attack. Dozens of “terrorists and Arab rioters,” accompanied by anarchist activists, attacked Jewish shepherds with stones and slingshots, burned equipment and injured two people. Furthermore, the Israel Defense Forces reportedly uncovered several explosive devices concealed in stone barriers, allegedly meant to target Israeli soldiers.
Jews are not intruders or aggressors in Judea and Samaria. Legacy media fail to mention that all Jews living in Judea and Samaria reside in Area C, the territory delineated by the Oslo Accords and agreed upon by the Palestinians, as under Israeli control. Jews are permitted to live in this territory and constitute the majority of the population in this area. Their residence in Judea and Samaria is completely legal under international law. Claims of Jewish “occupation” of the territory are equally false: Judea and Samaria were never legally part of any other country, nor have Palestinians ever had sovereignty over them. Yet today, the Palestinians permit no Jews to inhabit Areas A and B, which they control, a clear form of apartheid.
Remember, too, that Judea and Samaria encompass the core of the ancient Jewish homeland. You cannot be an intruder in your native land. Finally, note that the overwhelming majority of Jewish residents in Area C of Judea and Samaria—now numbering more than 500,000 in cities as large as 85,000—are not extremists, but families who choose to live there because of cheaper housing and a high quality of life.
In short, numbers show that it is overwhelmingly Palestinians who attack Jews, not the other way around. The myth of “settler violence” is simply a way for enemies of the Jewish state to discredit Israel and Israelis who don’t accept Palestinian apartheid.
Originally published by Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME).
