Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

With the ongoing, devastating war in Gaza, many in the U.S. and Israel have not been focused on the dramatic rise in settler violence. According to Yesh Din, 2023 was the worst year for settler violence in decades and it has only intensified in waves throughout 2024. 

Settler violence is now ubiquitous across the West Bank. It is, according to Yesh Din, “part of a calculated strategy for dispossessing Palestinians of their land,” and therefore often occurs at the site of Palestinian villages or farmland where settlers hope to build outposts–illegal under both Israeli and international law. 

To address this dynamic NIF is investing in those working on the ground to “block” moves toward entrenching the occupation and annexation. 

NIF’s approach has shifted over time to account for settler violence. One tactic we’ve embraced is called “protective presence.” It entails Israeli activists going with Palestinians as they attempt to tend to their crops or shepherd their sheep. The accompanying activists document settler violence and vandalism if it occurs. This is a form of direct solidarity with Palestinians at risk, and it can be very effective in deterring settler violence. The purpose of protective presence is not only to reduce settler attacks on Palestinians but also to provide the Palestinians most at risk with a sense of security and the knowledge that they are not alone. 

One NIF grantee, Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR), successfully organized its yearly campaign to assist, protect, and volunteer alongside Palestinian communities across the West Bank during the olive harvesting season (from mid-October to the end of November). During last year’s harvest—which began days after October 7—settlers burned thousands of olive trees and committed dozens of violent attacks. This past year, RHR worked hard to create a protective presence by recruiting volunteers to work directly alongside Palestinian farmers during the harvest. 

These efforts were written about by Gershom Gorenberg in The Atlantic in a piece called “the Cost of Lawlessness”, published on December 19.

RHR is not alone. In August, NIF grantees Breaking the Silence and Peace Now led a convoy of activists to the village of Zanuta in the South Hebron Hills, a place where so many settler attacks occurred that villagers have fled in fear. Attacks against Zanuta have intensified ever since Yinon Levy, a violent settler who has been sanctioned by the United States, established a nearby illegal outpost. Zanuta’s villagers have recently been able to return to their homes and, alongside activists, are rebuilding the school that settlers destroyed in their absence.

Summud is an Arabic word meaning steadfastness. It is often used in reference to Palestinian villagers who, despite living under constant threat of demolitions or settler violence, insist on remaining in their homes in Area C. By doing so, they refuse to submit to the culture of fear that the extremist, supremacist forces in Israel are working so hard to create. The opposite of fear is solidarity—which is exactly why protective presence is an effective and essential tool to push back against these forces of chaos and violence.

For an in-depth look into what’s happening in Palestinian villages in Area C of the West Bank, listen to this episode of Groundwork, featuring Elisheva Goldberg, Senior Director of Media and Policy on settler violence, protective presence, and steadfastness.

This article was first published in NIF News on September 19, 2024. It has been modified and updated.