Samaa Abu Sharar
The Palestine Chronicle / August 21, 2024
NRC urged the international community to exert all efforts with Israel to ban illegal Jewish settlers from entry into Palestinian residential, agricultural and grazing areas.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) announced Wednesday that the recent illegal Jewish settler violence in the occupied West Bank provoked the “largest forcible transfer” since the weeks following October 7.
Allegra Pacheco, chief of party of the NRC-led West Bank Protection Consortium (WBPC) appealed in a statement to the international community including the United States and the European Union to urgently “intervene with the Israeli occupation authorities and protect these vulnerable communities.”
“Those that left want to return to their lands and livelihoods as soon as it is safe,” he added.
NRC pointed out in its statement that three communities, comprising 119 Palestinians, have been forced out in the last ten days due to attacks carried out by illegal Jewish settlers on community members in their homes, during which they established new settler outposts and blocked access to water.
The statement stated that two communities, Al-Farsiya Khallet Khader and Al-Farisiya al-Zu’bi, have been completely abandoned, while only one family remains in the third community, Ein al-Hilweh – Um al-Jmal.
The international organization held Israel responsible as the occupying power for the actions of violent settlers.
“These attacks, occurring in broad daylight under the watching eyes and the protective force of the Israeli military, highlight the unlawfulness of Israel’s presence in the West Bank, as recently ruled by the International Court of Justice,” Pacheco said.
“Palestinians are being forced to leave their land in what clearly constitutes a grave breach of international humanitarian law,” the statement added.
NRC revealed that the overall 18 communities in the Al-Maleh region, all of which are supported by the WBPC, have been already displaced or are at imminent risk of forcible transfer due to ongoing settler violence.
“The consortium has worked for years, with the support of our donors, to improve the lives and livelihoods of these vulnerable Palestinian communities,” Pacheco declared.
“By destroying their properties and sources of income, Israeli settlers have not only violated Palestinians’ rights, but they have also caused substantial damage to any progress contributed by donors and humanitarian agencies,” he added.
According to the statement, the organization estimates that nearly a quarter of a million euros worth of humanitarian aid provided by the WBPC was possibly affected and some assistance was already destroyed or looted by illegal Jewish settlers.
NRC urged the international community to exert all efforts with Israel to ban illegal settlers from entry into Palestinian residential, agricultural and grazing areas.
The organization ended its statement by requesting Israel to issue military orders to shut down all illegal settler outposts, which it described as “from where violence is planned and perpetrated.”
NRC demanded that all illegal settler attacks must be investigated, prosecuted, sanctioned and those behind them held accountable.
Along these lines, the head of The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission (CWRC), Mu’ayyad Shaa’ban, announced last week that Israeli occupation forces and illegal settlers have intentionally initiated 273 fires in Palestinian land and property since October 7 of last year.
Shaa’ban also revealed that 56 of these fires were the result of military raids and assaults by Israel’s occupation army and nine were joint settler-military actions, while 208 fires were at the hands of illegal Jewish Settlers.
Shaa’ban indicated that the violence inflicted by illegal settlers has resulted since October 7 of last year in the death of 18 Palestinians and the injury of 785 others and the displacement of 26 Bedouin communities.
Samaa Abu Sharar is a Palestinian journalist and researcher living in Beirut
