“Settler violence is a form of government policy, permitted and aided by official state authorities with their active participation,” according to a report from the Israeli group B’Tselem.

By Jessica Corbett. Published 11-14-2021 by Common Dreams

The Um Zuqa farm is one of six “farms” set up by settlers in the northern Jordan Valley in the past five years. It was built in 2016 on a site that housed the Palestinian village of Khirbet al-Mzoqah, which Israel demolished after occupying the West Bank. (Photo: Eyal Hareuveni, B’Tselem)

The Jerusalem-based rights group B’Tselem released a report Sunday that accuses Israel’s “​​apartheid regime” of using settler-colonist violence to take control of Palestinian farmland and pastureland, focusing on nearly 11 square miles in the illegally occupied West Bank.

“Settler violence against Palestinians serves as a major informal tool at the hands of the state to take over more and more West Bank land,” says the report. “The state fully supports and assists these acts of violence, and its agents sometimes participate in them directly.” Continue reading →