If perpetrators of suspected arson attack are caught it will be instructive to compare their treatment with that of Palestinians accused of stone-throwing

The killing of a Palestinian infant in a suspected arson attack by extremist Jewish settlers in the West Bank has been swiftly condemned as an act of terror by both Israeli and Palestinian leaders.



This horrific act is not an isolated event, but part of a widespread campaign by extremist settlers against Palestinians and their property, and it will be instructive to compare the treatment of the perpetrators – if and when they are identified – with Palestinian youths accused of stone-throwing.

Within hours of the attack, the Palestine Liberation Organisation released data showing a total of 369 attacks it says were committed by Israeli settlers from the beginning of 2015 up to July 27 – an average of more than 12 attacks each week. They include harassment and intimidation, the destruction and theft of olive trees, the poisoning of wells, stone-throwing, firing with live ammunition at people and property, assaults, verbal abuse, vandalism and the spraying of graffiti on property.

B’Tselem, the Israeli human rights group which monitors settler activity, said that in the past three years, nine Palestinian homes in the West Bank had been set alight, and a Palestinian family had been severely burned when a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a Palestinian taxi. “In recent years, Israeli civilians set fire to dozens of Palestinian homes, mosques, businesses, agricultural land and vehicles in the West Bank. The vast majority of the these cases were never solved, and in many of them the Israeli police did not even bother to take elementary investigative actions,” B’Tselem said in a statement.

Most settler attacks are relatively small-scale, but together they present a picture of life for Palestinian villages in Area C, the 60% of the West Bank under full Israeli control and home to more than 200 settlements – all of which are illegal under international law. Throw in restrictions on movement for Palestinians and the continual and invasive presence of the Israeli military – and the grinding, oppressive reality of life under almost half a century of occupation becomes a little clearer.

Many of the attacks carried out by extremist settlers are under the “price tag” banner – actions against Palestinians in response to moves by the Israeli authorities that are viewed by the perpetrators as hostile to settlers. Friday’s arson attack is thought to be an act of revenge for the Israeli security forces’ demolition of two buildings in the settlement of Beit El earlier this week, which were deemed illegal by the Israeli supreme court. (The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, swiftly approved the construction of hundreds of new homes in Beit El and East Jerusalem following protests.)

Palestinians carry out attacks too, of course, sometimes with equally horrific consequences. An Israeli father and his baby were killed in September 2011 after their car was hit by stones near Hebron. In March of that year, five members of the Fogel family, including three children, were murdered in their beds in a settlement near Nablus.

Following Friday’s attack, Netanyahu said: “The state of Israel takes a strong line against terrorism regardless of who the perpetrators are.” But, in general, the response of the Israeli authorities to the perpetrators of settler violence is rather different to the response to Palestinian attackers.

Palestinian acts of violence are routinely followed by military incursions into towns and villages, the detention and interrogation of boys and men, and often the demolition of the suspect’s home. The Israeli parliament recently passed a law, setting a maximum 20-year jail sentence for stone-throwing with intent to injure or harm.

Palestinian youths are often detained at night, sometimes interrogated without lawyers or family members present, subject to physical and verbal abuse, forced to sign “confessions” written in Hebrew – a language that few can read, shackled and handcuffed during court appearances, rarely given bail, and serve sentences in prisons far from home with relatives needing elusive permits for infrequent visits.

The perpetrators of settler violence are much less likely to be brought to justice. When youths are arrested and charged, they are dealt with under Israeli civilian law and courts, whereas Palestinian youths face military justice. Settler youths are rarely held in detention before trial and have access to superior legal representation.

Friday’s arson attack was met with condemnation by Israel, Palestine and the international community. But, as B’Tselem says, “official condemnations of this attack are empty rhetoric as long as politicians continue their policy of avoiding enforcement of the law on Israelis who harm Palestinians, and do not deal with the public climate and the incitement which serve as backdrop to these acts. In the light of this, the clock is ticking in the countdown to the next arson attack, and the one after.”