Yahav Erez is an International Advocacy Coordinator at an Israeli organization Yesh Din. She talks about the apartheid regime, ideologically motivated violence, why West Bank settlers believe they will build settlements in Gaza and why international community has to finally hold Israel to the universal standards of the international law and human rights.

Yesh Din is an Israeli organization documenting Israeli settlers’ violent crimes in the occupied West Bank since 2005. In the first nine months of 2023 it recorded 160 settlers’ attacks against Palestinians, and then, in just the following two months during the olive harvests and after the war on Gaza started after the 7^th October incursion and attacks by Hamas from the besieged Gaza the number of settlers’ attacks peaked to 113. 715 olive trees on Palestinian lands have been deliberately destroyed. Yesh Din data shows that in eighteen years of settlers’ violence only 6,3 percent of all complaints filed led to an indictment while 81 percent of complaints had never been investigated.

Kristina Božič: Yesh Din’s data shows that 2023 was an especially violent year. However your reports state that the settlers’ violence is systematic and state supported. It is nothing new.

Yahav Erez: Yes, all the governments, at least since 2005 but even prior to that, have endorsed settler violence and Israeli military occupation in the West Bank. All Israeli governments, leftist or right wing, have implemented this same policy. The current government that was sworn in January 2023 has been the worst. It has committed itself in the coalition agreement to advance policies of annexation. Knesset members claim that these, including the expansion of the settlement enterprise, are favourable for Israel. They are shifting the powers and authority from the military to the civil government. Thus, the authority of the Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has expanded and this is a de facto annexation. Israel is the sovereign and not the occupier over the West Bank. Budgets are moved to expand the settlement enterprise, increase the military force and powers among the Jewish Israeli population in the West Bank. The state is arming the settlers and funding the emergency response teams in the settlements, which is basically a formation of the settler militias in the West Bank.

The move from the military to the civil sphere does not sound menacing to someone looking from afar. Why does this worry you and how does it relate to the conclusions that Israel is enforcing apartheid regime? Is it also connected to the case in front of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where this month there will be a public hearing about the illegality of the Israeli occupation?

All these are undoubtedly connected. The move of the authority from the Israeli military into the civil government is dangerous because of a few reasons. International law does not say that occupation is in itself illegal. However, it is illegal to make it permanent, part of which is annexation. Moreover, the law does not recognize the occupying military as a sovereign on the occupied territory but as a temporary custodian that must, among other duties, protect the population under the occupation and it is to be replaced after the occupation ends. The West Bank was occupied in 1967 and the Israeli military should protect the Palestinians, which it obviously does not. However, the government of the state of Israel has a different role. It protects and works for only one population’s interests – those of Israeli citizens. Military, however, according to the international law, has to protect not only the interests of the citizens of the state it belongs to but in a case of a military occupation also the interests of the occupied people. If authorities move from the military to civil governmental bodies, the responsibilities and duties to take into account the interests of the occupied population disappear.

Yesh Din published and submitted a legal brief to the ICJ on the legal status of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in July. We have also briefed the states, preparing their submissions to the ICJ. We claim that the occupation is illegal because we see that it has become permanent. Part of the permanence is the de facto annexation and enforcing the crime of apartheid. Component of both crimes is the Israeli policy of expanding the settlement enterprise. International law prohibits the occupier to move its citizens into the occupied territory but this is exactly what the settlements are. Israel has established them, continues with their expansion and is retroactively authorizing illegal outposts in the occupied West Bank. It does not hide this at all. And this is the basics of the apartheid regime, because if illegal Israeli settlements did not exist in the occupied West Bank, there would not be two different populations under two legal systems on the occupied territory. The settlement enterprise in itself forms the root of the problem.

One of the cases Yesh Din has shed light on is the West Bank village of Burqa. Israel confiscated the land of its inhabitants in 1978 under the claim of security needs; the illegal settlement Homesh was built there but in 2005 dismantled, although the land remained beyond the reach of the Palestinians since there remained an Israeli outpost. Israeli Supreme Court approved in August last year that a new settlement can be build there. Yesh Din says, this proves that also courts in Israel act in the service of Jewish supremacy, although further complaints have been filed. Why is this case important today and what legal avenues remain to fight for justice and for the rights of the Palestinians?

The illegal Homesh settlement was evacuated in 2005 as part of the Gaza disengagement plan. The disengagement law stated that Israeli citizens were not allowed to be or reside in the areas from where the settlements had been evacuated. However, in the area of Homesh an illegal presence remained since 2005 and military came there to protect it.

This is important today because Homesh for settlers is a symbol. It symbolizes the return to the evacuated illegal settlements and for a while now, much before October last year, the settlers have been emphasizing that Homesh will be the precedent. Once they re-establish it, Gaza settlements will follow. Since 2005 one of their main goals has been to return to Gaza and to the north of the West Bank. The case of Homesh shows their plan has worked and the war on Gaza is now another encouragement.

Homesh is also typical of the Israeli policies on the illegal settlements in the West Bank. It shows the level of the Israeli state’s unbound support for the settlement enterprise. The leaders of the settlers’ movement, including the ministers in the government, have for years been saying, that Homesh would be the first of many to follow.

How can we oppose this legally since the Israeli court system supports the settlement enterprise? International community has to act and intervene. Without a serious international intervention the situation will continue to get worse. In the West Bank it is getting worse daily. 2023 was the most violent year for the Palestinians in the West Bank since Yesh Din has started its work.

We see that the ICJ has issued the provisions to prevent genocide in Gaza in the South African case against Israel. Together with over 20 other Israeli organisations we have just called for a ceasefire. We have called on the international community to unconditionally fulfil its legal obligations to uphold the respect of the international humanitarian law. The ICJ is the hope we are holding on to. And we call on the international community to pressure Israel to respect the ICJ’s demands.

The non-obligatory 2004 ICJ Advisory Opinion that found the Israeli apartheid wall on the West Bank to be illegal passed without having any effect on Israel’s actions. Yesh Din says, “concerted international action can change the situation on the ground”. What would it have to entail since the only concerted international action we see at the moment is to de-fund UNRWA?

De-funding UNRWA only worsens the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe and it should not be happening. The EU and some European states give blind support to Israel’s policies and they need to understand that Israel is continuously and repeatedly violating the international law and has been doing so for decades. The settlement enterprise is only one of many examples. We call on these states and on international bodies to finally address the grave situation. It is time.

If Gaza has opened the eyes of the international community to the Israeli atrocities, then the Israeli oppression of the Palestinians and the violations of their rights must not be overlooked. Israeli crimes in the occupied West Bank can be seen very clearly. We are pleading with the international community to finally acknowledge that these violations and the Israeli occupation have to come to an end.

The US has sanctioned four illegal Israeli settlers and similar measures have been promised by some other states. Israeli government has dismissed these sanctions. What effect if any do they have?

These sanctions are definitely not enough. And I do not think they are meant to be enough. I do not think the intention is to stop here. It is an important precedent given the so far firm support of the US for all Israeli policies. There is much more however, that can be done and many other states can follow suit.

Currently it is mostly a symbolic move that communicates to the Israeli government that their denial of settlers’ violence fools no one. If the highest figures in the Israeli government claim that settlers’ violence does not exist, it is very important that the international community conveys a message to Israel that such a denial and impunity are not acceptable. Israel needs to understand, that if it does not act against the settlers’ violence, the international community will. This seems to be the only thing that can deter the Israeli government from ensuring total impunity for the settlers’ violence.

The possibility that these sanctions change anything for the sanctioned settlers, their families or communities is little. Maybe the sanctions could deter younger generations from joining the cycle of violence and ideologically motivated crimes. Certain impacts could be felt in the broader Israeli society, which is lied to. When Israeli government denies that it ensures impunity and that there is systematic settlers’ violence, blaming a few rotten apples, many believe it. Israel manages a system that benefits from settlers’ violence and uses it as a tool to expand the settler enterprise. General Israeli public does not hear that this is a policy – not a bug but a feature of the system.

You have mentioned the ideological drive for the violence. What kind of ideology are you talking about?

It is an ideology of Jewish supremacy and of exclusive sovereignty of Jews in the Jewish state. West Bank is controlled by the settler enterprise no matter that on paper there are the Palestinian Authority and areas A, B, C … Facts and data show that Israel controls millions of Palestinians in the West Bank in every aspect of their lives. Israeli military does not fulfil its obligation to protect and ensure safety of the occupied population but does the opposite and controls the civil everyday through its military body of civil administration. All of this is encapsulated in the ideology of control by the Jewish state over the lives of Palestinians. In the West Bank we see the most extreme form of the Jewish supremacy and of exclusive control of one people over another.

The violent settlers who participate in these ideologically motivated crimes do not act as individuals but as members of a political ideological movement that aims to control more and more areas in the West Bank so that Palestinians are forced into smaller and smaller spaces of life, while Israel controls larger and larger amounts of land in the West Bank.

In the broadest and most direct sense it is the ideology to ensure control over more and more land. Settler violence and land grab are directly connected. More illegal Israeli settlers’ violence creates more insecurity for Palestinians and decreases their presence on their lands making it easier for the Israeli to take over.

You have mentioned the formation of militias and we have seen state-sponsored arming of the settlers who attack Palestinians. What does this mean?

It is very dangerous to arm so many civilians who are ideologically driven and who live in an area where an apartheid regime is being actively implemented. The illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank enjoy privileges and rights Palestinians are denied. With these additional arms they are now the de facto authority and this is very dangerous. The Israeli military in the West Bank already does the opposite from protecting the Palestinians, which is their international legal duty. Palestinians are daily brutalized not only by the Israeli military but also by the state-armed illegal Israeli settlers and the situation is getting worse.

Yesh Din with its work presents the opposite: cooperation and solidarity between Israelis and Palestinians, fighting for the respect of human rights. Does this vision of the Israeli-Palestinian relations stand a chance?

This is not our goal but it is true. Inside our team some of us have more rights and freedoms than others because some of us are Israelis and others are Palestinians. We experience this systemic hierarchy of rights in our day-to-day and we know that an important component of apartheid regime is to divide and separate the two populations with different rights.

Personally I can say that the crime of apartheid and illegal military occupation are much easier if the privileged, occupying population does not even see the occupied population. The Apartheid Wall physically and mentally separates. Similarly, the illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank live in the de facto gated Jewish only communities. Therefore, the effects of the Israeli apartheid control over Palestinians are not seen and often not even understood by the Israel’s population.

Respecting human rights, including the Palestinian refugees’ right of return, would means that Israel as it is could not continue with its Jewish supremacy and occupation of the Palestinian territories. How important is it to acknowledge these consequences or does it suffice to demand the universal recognition and respect of human rights?

Striving for the rule of law, legality and respect of human rights is the basics. We need to start from here. At Yesh Din we also do not delve into anything beyond that. We work on these basic aspects. From here on many other things can be understood but first of all, all human rights of all human beings must be recognized and respected. As an organization for human rights we do no side with any particular solution. We insist that Israeli occupation and how it violates the rights of Palestinians only pushes any kind of solution further away. Respect for human rights of all is a prerequisite of any solution that will ensure the human rights of all.

Whether it is a reconciliation processe or a political agreement human rights are the basics. The solution cannot be militaristic. The problem of the military occupation cannot be solved with a military solution – the solution will have to be political. And if we are to reach it, Israel has to start by respecting the human rights of the Palestinians.

Under the present 37^th Israeli government the NGOs working in the field of human rights have come under a mounting pressure. Is this a manifestation of strength or weakness of the Israeli ruling class?

Yes, Israeli human rights organizations and civil society are under attack and the space for our work is shrinking. However, if Israel did not have a problem with the violations of human rights, it would not make such an effort to attack all who shed light on these violations.

So it is a sign of weakness and their reaction confirms there is a problem. It is definitely a sign of moral weakness but in other aspects it is a manifestation that the government and the Israeli system are not very tolerant towards anyone who tries to challenge this decades long power regime. It also signals to the international community what Israel can do.

In this regard it is important to emphasize, that Israel, whenever it is challenged, responds by labelling the criticism as anti-Semitic. And as a Jewish Israeli working in an Israeli organization within the sphere of human rights I can say that it is crucial that people do not take these accusation of anti-Semitism at face value.

Israeli political leaders have even labelled the US sanctions on four illegal violent settlers as anti-Semitic. However, this US policy of banning entry and assets freeze has been implemented against Palestinians engaged in violence against Israeli citizens for years. The only new feature is that now it is directed also against chosen Israeli citizens. Claiming this is anti-Semitic is absurd. And even more absurd has been the statement by Netanyahu who had complained and called for these sanctions to be equally enforced also against Palestinians – now, he is either ignorant or manipulative. In any case he is lying. And this shows how easily everything can be twisted. For me, as a Jewish Israeli who works at an organization that opposes the occupation, it is very important that the European and Western public understand that not everything that is against the Israeli policies is anti-Semitic. If being against annexation, occupation and military control is anti-Semitic, than we need to look at the definition of anti-Semitism much closer and be much more precise with what we are now quick to accept and consume from the Israeli government.

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