Why Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in West Bank are pogroms

What the report says

Al Jazeera reports that attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have intensified in recent weeks, often alongside Israeli military activity. The article says incidents have included raids on towns, villages and refugee camps, home searches, arrests and the targeting of Palestinian homes, businesses, farms and livestock. It highlights a long-running siege on three Palestinian families in Qusra, near Nablus, and says the village has also seen damage to a mosque that residents attribute to settlers.

The piece argues that the pattern of violence increasingly fits the description of a pogrom, a term some experts and officials have used for organized, anti-civilian attacks that are seen as tolerated or enabled by authorities. Al Jazeera cites UN reporting that more than 1,330 settler-related attacks were recorded in the West Bank between January and late July this year, as well as findings that some attacks were facilitated by Israeli forces. It also notes concerns from rights groups and UN bodies that settler activity is contributing to forced displacement.

The article places the violence in the broader context of settlement expansion and Israeli control over large parts of the West Bank. It says settlers now number roughly 780,000 in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and warns that planned expansion in the E1 area near Jerusalem could further fragment Palestinian territory and complicate the prospect of a future Palestinian state. Al Jazeera also notes that the word “pogrom” has no fixed legal definition under international law, even though it has been used by some Israeli, Palestinian and UN figures to describe such attacks.