A Palestinian human rights activist and longtime resident of the occupied West Bank has described a pattern of settler violence against his community that he characterizes as deliberate and state-supported, aimed at forcing Palestinians from their land.
Eid Hathaleen, an artist and activist from the Bedouin village of Umm al-Khair in the southern West Bank, spoke to France 24 about what he says are systematic attacks on Palestinian civilians by Israeli settlers operating with what he describes as the full backing of the Israeli military.
"Killing Palestinians in broad daylight" was how Hathaleen framed the situation, according to the France 24 report. He insisted the violence is not random or spontaneous, but rather calculated in nature, with the overarching goal of displacing Palestinian families from their land.
A community under pressure
Umm al-Khair is a Bedouin village located near the Israeli settlement of Carmel in the Hebron hills. The community has long been the subject of Israeli demolition orders and has been documented by human rights organizations as a flashpoint for settler-Palestinian tensions.
Hathaleen described attacks targeting civilians and entire families, and said there is little to no accountability for those carrying out the violence. His account reflects broader concerns raised by international human rights groups, who have documented a sharp rise in settler attacks across the West Bank in recent years, particularly since the outbreak of the Gaza conflict in October 2023.
Broader context
The United Nations and various human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have previously documented incidents in which Israeli soldiers were present during settler attacks on Palestinian communities without intervening. The Israeli government has denied that settler violence is state policy, though critics argue that a lack of prosecution enables continued attacks.
The Israeli military and government had not responded publicly to Hathaleen's specific claims at the time of the France 24 report.
The situation in the West Bank has drawn increasing international attention, with several Western governments imposing sanctions on individual settlers accused of violence. The United States, United Kingdom, and European Union have all taken limited measures against named settlers in recent years, though Palestinian advocates argue these steps fall short of meaningful accountability.
Hathaleen's account, as reported by France 24, adds a personal dimension to a crisis that international observers say is reshaping the demographic and geographic landscape of the occupied West Bank.
