On the same night that Israeli and international media zeroed in on the violent attacks in Amsterdam against Jewish Israeli soccer fans, extremist Jewish Israeli settlers were violently attacking Palestinians more than 2,500 miles away. Our grantees know it is critical to keep Israeli eyes on the occupation and on the violence happening so close to home. This is why grantees have been focused on documenting and strategically blocking settler violence. 

The central goals of NIF’s “Vision of Security and Peace” program, which was put into practice in recent months, are to “block” moves toward entrenching the occupation and to “build” support for a diplomatic solution to the conflict that advances a vision for Israel’s future based on peace, democracy, and justice. Some of this “blocking” comes in the form of providing various supports—legal, mental health, networking, and others—to activists on the ground.

In the case of The Israeli Democratic Bloc, an NIF grantee, it comes in the form of documentation. The Israeli Democratic Bloc is an organization that monitors media discourse, grounded in the principle of human rights in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Part of its mission is to raise public awareness, inside and outside of Israel, on issues related to Israeli democracy. The Israeli Democratic Bloc logs individual instances of settler violence, which often occur more than once a day. They also utilize additional documentation provided by other NIF grantees, like Yesh Din. 

Another part of NIF’s “blocking” strategy is practiced by grantees like Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR). They, and many other NIF grantees, have brought Israeli and international activists to be with Palestinians as they harvest olives, tend to their flocks, and live their lives. This tactic is known as “protective presence”. 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.

Despite the fact that many incidents of settler violence have received no coverage whatsoever from Israeli news, and that their documentation likely does not capture all of the incidents of settler violence through the week, NIF grantees like the Israeli Democratic Bloc are nonetheless dedicated to this work because, as they see it, following in the path of ignorance helps to normalize this violence, allowing it to go unnoticed—calling upon the Israeli people and all people to reject this violence as normal or turn away from it.