Record spike in settler violence ahead of election

Mukhmas, West Bank – Trying to score gains with their anti-Arab political bases, Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners are fueling what analysts and Palestinian leaders say is a record spike in settler violence, much of it related to the current olive harvest in the occupied West Bank.

“The Israeli election campaign is being conducted with our blood,” Ibrahim Umran, mayor of Burin, near Nablus, told The Jewish Independent. “Whoever carries out the most violence will win the election.”

Umran said the violence is devastating to Palestinians’ ability to earn a living. “People are very afraid. We used to harvest morning to evening, but now we only harvest for two hours and go home very quickly before the army and settlers come.”

He and a Palestinian resident from Burin who alleges he was abused by IDF soldiers, along with two farmers on Tuesday at the Motsav Sela army position, accuse the IDF of helping settlers to thwart the olive harvest. “The IDF arrests farmers on their own land,” the Burin resident said.

In response to a query by TJI, a military official responded that the IDF is making extensive efforts to facilitate the harvest. “When disruptions to the harvest occur, security forces take the necessary measures to enable it to continue, or, where necessary, disperse those present, while seeking to avoid casualties.” The army had no immediate comment on the abuse allegations, which include keeping people detained for 10 hours in tight hand restraints that caused injury.

The violence has also seen the advance of an alarming trend: attacks on mosques. Settlers on October 14 shook the Mukhmas village north of Jerusalem by setting fire to a mosque overnight, bringing to 12 the number of Islamic houses of worship attacked by settlers since mid-June, according to the dovish Israeli group Tag Meir, which visited Mukhmas on Sunday to show support.