A Palestinian in the remains of a house burned down by settlers in the West Bank. An 18-month-old infant was killed in the fire. Image: AP
Data analyzes by the Guardian in collaboration with an Israeli NGO show that Israeli settlers and military personnel face few legal consequences for acts of violence in the West Bank. Even former Israeli government officials and military personnel speak of “Jewish terrorism.”
Mar 25, 2026, 7:56 p.mMar 25, 2026, 7:56 p.m
Israeli settlers and soldiers are according to UN statistics responsible for the deaths of at least 1,100 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank since 2020. Around a quarter of the fatalities are said to have been minors. Using publicly available data and court rulings, we now investigate the British newspaper “Guardian” in collaboration with the Israeli human rights organization “Yesh Din”, how many convictions the deaths led to in Israeli courts.
The results show: Since 2019, neither settlers nor soldiers of the Israeli army have been prosecuted for any of the over 1,000 cases of deadly violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Since 2020, over 96 percent of all criminal proceedings relating to military and settler violence have ended without a conviction, as “Yesh Din” writes. In only eight of the 368 cases examined were a guilty verdict.
The West Bank
Around three million Palestinians and 500,000 Israeli citizens live in the 5,800 square meter West Bank. The region was occupied by the Israeli army in 1967 during the Six-Day War and is still occupied today. According to international law, this is an occupation that violates international law and has resulted in around 150 illegal settlements being created in the country to date. The West Bank is divided into three zones, one under the leadership of the Palestinian Authority, a zone under joint leadership and a third zone under Israeli leadership. The Israeli territories make up 60 percent of the entire country and include the fertile soils along the Jordan River.
Criticism from Israel is increasing – ex-prime minister calls for investigation in The Hague
In a letter to the Guardian, the former Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, calls for the International Court of Justice in The Hague to intervene. Olmert called the attackers “Jewish terrorists” and expressed his hope that the International Court of Justice would take the necessary steps to protect Palestinians from their attacks. The violence is a form of ethnic cleansing, supported by Israeli government circles.
At the same time, dozens of former security officers, military personnel and Mossad agents addressed an open letter to the current head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). In it they report almost daily attacks on the Palestinian population in the West Bank and also call these Jewish terrorism. «It’s no longer about a handful of hooligans. They are organized actions, sometimes involving uniformed people, who shoot at innocent people and set civilians’ houses on fire.”
“Cruel ethnic cleansing”
A former Israeli defense minister and five former Mossad agents in senior positions also signed the open letter. According to the Guardian, the letter has hardly been reported so far. Already in February, two former justice ministers from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, among others, accused the government of “actively allowing a cruel ethnic cleansing against Palestinians” in the West Bank.
Amjad Iraqi, senior analyst at the NGO International Crisis Group, welcomes the criticism from Israel, but adds to the Guardian that many Palestinians do not forget that a large number of former officials helped to enable the expansion of the settlement policy and thus the violence in the West Bank. “Israeli criticism often gives the impression that settler violence can be curbed by replacing the right-wing extremist government. This would certainly help, but it is often overlooked that settlement policy is a state project that was designed and promoted across the entire political spectrum. (July)