BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- A
Palestinian human rights group on Wednesday called on EU member states
to take tougher measures to ensure that public and private national
bodies do not provide support to violent settler groups in the occupied
West Bank.
In a new
report,
"Institutionalized Impunity: Israel's Failure to Combat Settler
Violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory", Al-Haq documents
settler violence as an "extensive, long-term, and worsening phenomenon."
The
report calls on Israel to enforce the law against settler attacks, end
all incitement to violence by settler groups and guarantee the
protection of the Palestinian civilian population subject to Israeli
control.
Al-Haq also says that third-party states to the conflict
have an "obligation to combat organized crime by ensuring that support,
financial or otherwise, is not being lent to violent settler groups by
private and public entities within their jurisdiction."
Shawan
Jabarin, director of Al-Haq, told Ma'an that impunity for settler
violence is systematic and part of an institutionalized Israeli policy
which directly, and indirectly, encourages settler attacks.
"The
obligation of Israeli authorities is to protect Palestinians under
occupation. They are not; they are closing their eyes and facilitating
the violence against Palestinians."
EU member states must carry
out their responsibilities in dealing with settlers who visit the EU to
solicit funds for violent groups as well as known violent settlers who
have dual nationality, Jabarin says.
"It is time for action against these groups and the settlers in general, as well as the leaders, such as settler councils."
In
2011, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the French branch of the
Jewish Defense League, an extreme right-wing group, was recruiting Jews
with military training to visit Israel and "defend" illegal settlements.
A
group spokesman said that five groups of 11 people were expected to
take "positions" in five Israeli settlements, with all expenses paid by
un-named French donors.
The Dutch Christian Zionist organization
Christenen voor Israel, or Christians for Israel, is another one of the
groups in EU member states with links to Israeli settlements.
A 2010
report
by the Inter Press Service news agency said that the organization's
website was soliciting donations to install security cameras for the
illegal settlement of Tzofim near Qalqiliya and was also providing
stipends for students studying at a university in Ariel settlement.
In August this year, the Corporate Watch
website
sent a series of open letters to UK registered charity Stewardship
Services out of concern that it was collecting donations for the Kochav
Yaakov settlement southeast of Ramallah.
The charity collects
donations for a project run by the Christian Friends of Israeli
Communities Heartland, which Corporate Watch says is akin to giving
"tacit support to Israel's colonization policies."
Stewardship
Services said the donations were solely to support a project providing
hot lunches to children in the illegal settlement.
EU visa ban for violent settlers
Valentina
Azarov, a legal adviser for Al-Haq, told Ma'an that EU states should
investigate individuals or groups which provide support to violent
settler groups or settlements known for violence who "could be held
liable for committing offenses under their domestic laws on organized
crime and financing of acts of terror."
Such groups, or
individuals, should be subject to investigation by their national
authorities, she says, and third state authorities should seek Israel's
cooperation in such investigations.
The EU should also "follow
through with its own legal and public policy needs by adopting risk
aversive measures against violent settlers such as banning their entry
into the EU," Azarov added.
In November last year, the independent EU Observer
news site
reported that a group of EU diplomats from the Political and Security
Committee dealing with conflict zones had approved measures to impose
visa bans on violent Israeli settlers.
A memo seen by the website
said that "individual EU member states could explore possibilities of
denying access of known violent settlers to the EU."
There were
also European Parliamentary questions regarding the matter in January
this year, to which EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton responded:
"By definition, actions by Israeli settlers in occupied territory are
not an internal matter for Israel."
Al-Haq's recommendations come
as EU guidelines prohibiting financial cooperation with Israeli
settlements in the occupied West Bank are due to take effect on Jan. 1.
The
guidelines, issued in July, raised a storm in Israel and were denounced
by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as "an external diktat
about our borders."
Palestinian officials welcomed the decision.
Settler
attacks on Palestinians and their property increased by 32 percent in
2011 compared to the previous year, and by over 144 percent compared to
the year before that, according to UN statistics.
In 2011, 10,000
olive trees were damaged or destroyed by settlers and 139 Palestinian
families displaced due to settler violence, the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported.
Over 90 percent
of complaints filed by Palestinians regarding settler violence are
closed by Israeli authorities without an indictment, the agency says.
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