Encouraged by both Labor and Likud Governments, Israeli settlements are continuing to grow, in violation of both the Oslo Accords[1] and international law.[2] In December 2000, there were approximately 199,000 Israeli settlers living in approximately 145 settlements in the Occupied Territories, and another 200,000 living in occupied East Jerusalem. 77% of the settlers chose to live in settlements primarily for “quality of life,” not ideological reasons.[3]  The most extreme settlers, who define themselves as national-religious, are found in small settlements in or around Palestinian cities.

 Over the course of the al-Aqsa intifada, settlers have shot and stabbed Palestinians, hurled stones at them, damaged their property, blocked roads, and abused them in countless other ways. They have entered Palestinian villages, damaged Palestinian vehicles traveling on the roads, and mistreated Palestinian farmers working their fields. As of August 10, 2002, at least 22 Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli settlers, including a 2-month-old baby. Large groups of settlers have conspired to commit criminal acts of revenge, including the mass rioting in Hebron on July 28, 2002, in which a 15 year old girl, confined to her home during curfew, was shot to death and an 8 year old boy was stabbed, allegedly in retaliation for Palestinian attacks on Israelis civilians.

 The failure to protect Palestinian lives and property and the arrogance of settlers who know they are granted a free rein is most glaring in the cases of mass revenge acts by settler vigilantes, supposedly committed in retaliation for past Palestinian acts of violence. Incredibly, although the vigilantes’ acts are often anticipated and frequently involve large numbers of settlers acting in broad daylight, neither the police nor the army take appropriate measures to prevent the violence. When the violence does erupt, they fail to take sufficient action to stop it. For example, during the July rampage in Hebron following the funeral of a murdered settler, in which 15 Israeli police officers were reportedly injured, there was no recourse to standard methods of crowd control, such as the use of tear gas or water canons.  Often, security forces are present, but do nothing to prevent settler looting, arson and other destruction of fields and buildings, or theft of property.[4]

A principal task of government is to enforce the law and to protect the life, property and rights of all the people living within its jurisdiction – including in occupied territory under its control. This principle is recognized throughout international law, as well as in the domestic legislation of most democracies today. Unfortunately, as this report will show, Israel fails to adequately protect the lives, rights and property of Palestinians for whose security it is responsible. Two separate and unequal legal systems operate side-by-side, one for Israelis and one for Palestinians. While Palestinian defendants, including juveniles, are prosecuted and punished to the fullest extent permitted by law, Israelis who commit crimes against Palestinians are seldom even apprehended, let alone prosecuted, and when they are actually prosecuted, they receive grossly inadequate sentences.[5] Such near impunity is clearly not intended to deter either the actual perpetrator from repeating his/her crime, or other settlers who might have a similar disregard for Palestinian rights, life and property. This is both bad law and bad policy.

‘Law’ and ‘Order’ are two terms usually thought of together: a state’s law and its desired order both support and reflect each other. Israel is no exception: the order it seeks is reflected in its law and the law reflects its desired order.  Israeli law enforcement authorities provide a hidden apparatus for enforcing the Occupation. Israel cannot give Jewish settlers a free hand to commit criminal acts against Palestinians. This would result in a drastic escalation of the level of settler violence, which in turn would lead to chaos and anarchy. Therefore, the settlers’ freedom to commit crimes must be limited. The level of police intervention is just enough to permit settler violence to continue, yet not get out of control. A precarious balance is achieved between Palestinian civilians and Jewish settlers, one in which Palestinians live in constant fear, never being truly protected.

The police district with jurisdiction over the occupied West Bank[6] is the Judea and Samaria (SHAI) District.[7]  It was established in September 1994, after the signing of the Oslo Accords and the Shamgar Committee recommendations following the investigation of the slaughter of 29 Palestinians at the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. SHAI District covers an area of 5,500 square kilometers, in which live approximately 1,500,000 Palestinians and 170,00 Jewish settlers.  CHECK FIGURES. Within the district are four police stations: Hebron, Ariel (Samaria), Beit ‘El (Binyamin) and Ma’ale Edumim.[8]

SHAI District police responsibilities, as quoted from the official police website, are “…to detect and prevent crime, to enforce road traffic law and maintain road safety, and to deal with public order disruptions by both Jews and Arabs.”[9]  Note that the stated police responsibility “to deal with public order disruptions by both Jews and Arabs,” does not commit the police to treat public order disruptions by Arabs and Jews equally. The lack of police commitment to equality before the law is not, however, a shortcoming of the SHAI police; it is an integral part of the Israeli legal system in the Occupied Territories. The policy of failing to enforce the law against settlers, who then enforce their own version of the law, causing widespread and continuing harm to the lives and property of innocent Palestinians, is particularly glaring when compared to Israel’s vigorous law enforcement against Palestinians. It appears that one of the most important apparatuses of the Israeli occupation is the separate – and unequal - legal systems for Jews and Palestinians living in the same territory; in short, legal apartheid.