Violent Riot by Israeli Settlers Prevents Return of Displaced Palestinian Family

More than 100 Israeli settlers in the illegally occupied West Bank rioted in the early hours of Tuesday morning to prevent the return of a Palestinian family that was driven from its home in the village of Jalud.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which was forced by a court ruling to facilitate the Tubasi family's return, said in a statement that rioting settlers "blocked roads," "set fires" to structures and vehicles, and hurled rocks at security forces as they tried to escort the Tubasis. Haaretz reported that after IDF forces failed to prevent rampaging Israeli settlers from storming the family's homes, "they put the family members into an armored military vehicle and evacuated them from the scene."

One family member told Haaretz that "half an hour later, smoke began to rise from the homes." The IDF said that three Israelis were detained for taking part in the riots.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government has been accused of "actively enabling" mass violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, issued a statement early Tuesday condemning the attacks while downplaying them as the work of a "handful of rioters."

The Jerusalem Post reported that the Tubasi family's return "had been coordinated after they were previously forced to evacuate following attacks by extremist settlers."

"The attempted return followed a September 6 High Court of Justice order requiring Israeli authorities to arrange within 14 days for three Palestinian petitioners and their families to return to their homes in Jalud," the outlet added. "The court ordered the IDF and police to protect the families during the return and allow them to bring in supplies needed to repair the homes and restore water and electricity."

Tuesday's riots were just the latest eruption of violence in the West Bank, where Israeli settlers are committing attacks on Palestinians at an unprecedented rate, according to data from the United Nations.

"Israeli officials are now condemning settler terror, but the state itself is backing this violence," said Breaking the Silence, an Israeli advocacy organization. "The Tubasi family had been expelled because the IDF backed terrorists who besieged their house for weeks. They allowed terrorists to roam free while barring journalists and solidarity activists from accessing them."

"Even after committing a pogrom, the vast majority of them, if not all, will never be held accountable and will continue to terrorize Palestinians," the group added. "Why? Because the state backs it."

The settler attack came days after the leading Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem published a report characterizing the Israeli government's actions in the West Bank, including large-scale land seizures, as "an elimination project," noting that Israel has "sharply escalated longstanding policies of control, violence, and dispossession, implementing them more openly, more violently, and at a faster pace."

“What Palestinians are living through in the West Bank is not a series of separate incidents," said Yuli Novak, B'Tselem's executive director. "It is a single political project that reaches into every part of life. Communities are being expelled, the economy is being pushed toward collapse, and millions are living in constant fear of Israeli military or settler violence."

"These mechanisms work together to dismantle Palestinian collective life while entrenching a permanent system of Jewish supremacy across the West Bank," Novak added. "The world is watching and still failing to respond with anything close to the urgency this demands."