Law Enforcement on Israeli Civilians in the Occupied Territories

Ein Yabrud village, June 1993

Testimony of Zarifa Salim Shueib, aged 48, from Ein Yabrud, given to B'Tselem fieldworker Bassem ‘Eid on July 1, 1993

On June 23, 1993, at about 9:45 p.m., I was at home. My house is the most northerly in the village, and lies on the road that runs from the village to the settlement of Ofra. I was sitting in the southeast room, where the windows face the main road in the village. Suddenly I saw a civilian vehicle that was blocking the main road, and many vehicles surrounded it.

Persons dressed in civilian clothes got out of the cars. I saw them bend over and pick up stones. They were standing under the lamp, so I saw exactly what they were doing. A truck arrived which was on the way from Kfar Silwad to Ein Yabrud. The settlers began stoning it although soldiers were alongside them. The settlers smashed the windows of the truck, but the soldiers did nothing to stop them. The truck turned around and went back the way it had come. The settlers still remained there, together with the soldiers. The soldiers prevented local vehicles going toward Ein Yabrud from continuing so that they would not be attacked by the settlers.

Jerusalem, November, 1993

According to an investigation by the Palestinian Human Rights Information Center, on November 7, 1993, dozens of settlers attacked houses and shops of Palestinians on the Jerusalem Ramallah road, between Pisgat Ze'ev Neve Ya'akov and the army checkpoint in the Dahiyat al Barid neighborhood, north of Jerusalem. The settlers, who were apparently organized, blocked the road from and to Jerusalem with boulders and burning tires, and then wrecked property of Arabs who lived nearby. They overturned cars, smashed windows, and attacked houses. All this activity took place within the view of the soldiers at the Dahiyat al Barid checkpoint.

Testimony by Jihad Hadad and Khalil Dirbas, owners of the Europa Bakery, gathered by the Palestinian Human Rights Information Center

Our front door, 6 millimeters by 200 centimeters by 150 centimeters, which is made of glass, was shattered. Our sign, 6 meters by 12 meters, was also damaged. Khalil was injured in the side by a stone when he went out to close the door and retrieve his son from the hands of the soldiers and the settlers. When he tried to stop the settlers who were throwing stones at his store, soldiers grabbed my son by the back of the neck in order to push him into the car and protect him from the settlers. I don’t understand why the soldiers took no action to get the settlers away from the store.¹

Hebron, November, 1993

A reserve soldier who served in Hebron in November, 1993 provided testimony in writing to MK Haim Oron. Included within his testimony was the following:

On Saturday, November 7, the Jewish prayers were supposed to end in the Cave of the Patriarchs, as on every Saturday, at 11 a.m., so that the Muslim muezzin could enter. However, a group of about thirty or forty members of Kach and others refused to leave despite the army’s requests. When an Arab resident entered the Cave of the Patriarchs at about 11:20 a.m., I had to pull him out a few seconds before he would have been lynched by the people who were then in the cave. The army and the police did not intervene and they did not permit the Muslim muezzin to enter the cave.

Organized Blocking of Roads by the YESHA Council, November, 1993

A clear example of how the IDF permits the settlers to act against the law and restrains the Palestinians in order to prevent friction was its handling of the campaign organized by the YESHA Council in November, 1993 to block main roads in the Territories.

On November 1, 1993 the media reported that following the attack in which Haim Mizrachi was killed, the YESHA Council decided to block about fifty road junctions in the Territories that morning between 4:30-8 a.m.¹ It was also reported that “IDF commanders in the West Bank instructed the commanders of the forces in the West Bank not to permit the settlers to block central axes and ordered that [such] settlers be removed, even by force.”² The next day it was reported that the settlers had in fact blocked dozens of roads and junctions.³

A week later, on November 8, 1993, following the attack in which Ephraim Ayubi, from the Kfar Darom settlement in the Gaza Strip, was killed, it was reported that the YESHA Council had decided again to block about fifty roads in the Territories and that in order to prevent this, the IDF had fortified its forces there.⁴ However, the following day it was reported that:

In the predawn hours yesterday, hundreds of settlers blocked forty-nine roads throughout the Territories as part of their protest operations in the wake of Ephraim Ayubi’s murder two days ago. The IDF deployed forces by the junctions, but did not prevent the settlers from blocking the roads against Palestinians. In most cases the soldiers stood some 100 meters in front of the roadblocks, and ordered the Arabs not to continue, in order to prevent unnecessary friction with the settlers.⁵

Blocking roads is a less serious offense than the dozens of settler riots during that period, which involved attacks on life and property.⁶ Nevertheless, the authorities’ handling of the incidents shows that in some cases at least the soldiers’ passivity was not due to the lack of clarity about their powers or to disobedience. On the contrary, it was the result of the instructions they had received. The IDF knew in advance about the road blocking campaign and there were large numbers of soldiers in the field. However, instead of preventing the settlers from blocking the roads, or at least arresting the activists, the soldiers abetted their illegal action by not permitting Palestinians to proceed.

D. Soldiers’ Involvement in Settler Violence against Palestinians

Testimonies taken by B'Tselem and other human rights organizations, as well as media reports show that in some cases soldiers, far from trying to prevent violence by settlers, actually join in.