The 'Settler-Soldier' Deception: How the Occupation Legitimizes Systematic Killings in the West Bank

The occupied West Bank villages and cities are facing an unprecedented wave of settler attacks that have gone beyond vandalism to reach systematic killing. These operations are carried out under a thick cover of misleading military narratives aimed at protecting the perpetrators from international and local legal prosecution, reflecting a clear policy of role-swapping between the occupation army and extremist settler groups.

Deir Jarir village, east of Ramallah, stands out as a stark example of this policy, where on April 11th, the young man Ali Hamadneh was assassinated. Field sources reported that four settlers attacked the entrance to the village, where two of them fired live ammunition directly at a group of young men, fatally wounding Hamadneh, who fell on the spot before being transported by a civilian vehicle.

In an attempt to legitimize the crime, the occupation army quickly issued a statement claiming that a 'reserve soldier' fired in self-defense after being pelted with stones. However, eyewitness testimonies completely refuted these claims, confirming that there was no military presence in the area at the time of the incident, and that the killer was a known settler who had been living in a nearby outpost for several months.

Not content with the killing, the occupation authorities extended their violations to the martyr's family during the mourning ceremonies in an attempt to break their will. Local sources reported that military vehicles stormed the vicinity of the mourning house, and soldiers provoked the mourners by playing loud music through loudspeakers and smashing a number of parked vehicles, in behavior that reflects the extent of psychological intimidation practiced against Palestinians.

Ali Hamadneh's family revealed pressures exerted by occupation intelligence through phone calls aimed at falsifying facts and solidifying the narrative that the killer was a 'soldier'. These attempts aim to give the crime a security character and avoid classifying it as a settler attack, despite prior knowledge of the identity of the settler who carries out repeated attacks against farmers and residents of the area almost daily.

For its part, the human rights center 'B'Tselem' indicated that this ambiguity in identifying the perpetrators is a deliberate and calculated tactic by the Israeli security establishment. Settlers are integrated into reserve forces to enable them to commit violence in their civilian capacity, then obtain legal immunity in their military capacity, which makes the superficial 'weapon confiscation' procedures merely attempts to whitewash the image of the occupation before the international community.

In a related political context, Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen acknowledged that the Netanyahu government is moving forward with the implementation of 'de facto annexation' of West Bank lands. This statement reinforces fears of transforming field attacks into a political reality aimed at forcibly displacing Palestinians and changing the demographic map of the region, in blatant defiance of all international laws that consider settlements illegal.

Official data issued by the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission indicates a frightening escalation in the pace of violence, with more than 1800 attacks recorded in March alone. These attacks were distributed between direct settler attacks and military operations by the army, leading to widespread property destruction and the seizure of vast areas of Palestinian land under flimsy security pretexts.

Since early October 2023, the West Bank has entered a spiral of escalating violence resulting in the martyrdom of more than 1149 Palestinians and the injury of thousands with varying degrees of wounds. These figures coincide with widespread arrest campaigns targeting nearly 22,000 citizens, indicating a comprehensive strategy aimed at restricting the Palestinian presence in all areas of contact with settlements and random outposts.

The identity of the killer is deliberately ambiguous; most residents of settlement outposts are reserve soldiers who play the role of the violent settler and the militarily protected soldier simultaneously.