Since 2022, not a single Israeli settler has been criminally prosecuted for the killing of Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, a new investigation by The Guardian reports.
Former security officials describe settler violence as “organized Jewish terrorism,” while even former prime minister Ehud Olmert has turned to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in an effort to “save Palestinians and Israelis” from what he describes as state-supported settler violence.
In March alone, Israeli settlers and police killed 10 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, including two siblings aged 5 and 7 and their parents, as they were returning from shopping for Ramadan.
In a letter addressed to the head of the Israeli army, dozens of former security officials speak of “organized crime.”
Since 2020, Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 1,100 Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank, at least a quarter of whom were children, according to the United Nations.
No one has been charged.
Between 2020 and 2025, more than 96% of police investigations into settler violence in the occupied West Bank were closed without charges.
Out of 368 cases, only 8 (around 2% of the total) resulted in full or partial convictions.
From 2020 to 2024, Palestinians filed 1,746 complaints (more than 600 related to killings) over harm caused by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank during this period.
Charges were brought in less than 1% of these cases.
Israeli law enforcement systems (courts, police, etc.) function primarily as “shields for perpetrators,” according to human rights organizations within Israel.
“The system is designed to produce impunity, not accountability,” an Israeli human rights lawyer told The Guardian.
Source: Guardian
