A 19-year study by Yesh Din finds that over 80% of investigations it reviewed were closed due to police failures, arguing this indicates ‘deliberate Israeli policy’
An Israeli organization says a study of Israel Police investigations into violence committed by Israelis against Palestinians in the West Bank shows that from 2005 to September 2023, some 94% of investigations it was able to review were closed without an indictment, and just three percent ended in a conviction.
In over 80% of the investigations reviewed, the cases were ultimately closed due to police’s failure to either identify the perpetrator or find the evidence needed to prosecute the culprits.
The study, carried out by the Yesh Din organization, which campaigns against Israeli rule in the West Bank, also found that Palestinian residents have a high level of mistrust for Israeli law enforcement services, with 58% of Palestinian victims of crime in 2023 choosing not to report those crimes to the police.
The study was based on 1,664 police investigation files opened due to incidents of suspected Israeli violence against Palestinians in the West Bank which were monitored by Yesh Din from 2005 to September 2023. This figure was not the total number of all such investigations opened by the police but merely the ones Yesh Din has tracked — all incidents in which Yesh Din received power of attorney from the alleged Palestinian victim to represent them to the police and prosecutors in legal proceedings, which gives the organization the ability to review the conduct of the investigation.
The total number of police investigations during that time period was not available.
The findings come against the background of a severe spike in settler violence throughout 2023 and an even worse spate of such attacks in the first month after the October 7 attack on southern Israel committed by Hamas. The phenomenon led to the depopulation of some 15 rural Palestinian herding communities in the Jordan Valley and the South Hebron Hills due to intense settler violence and harassment.
Yesh Din noted in its report that under international law, Palestinian residents of the West Bank are “protected persons” whom Israel has a duty to protect, and alleged that the state’s failure to do so over such a long period indicated it was supportive of the phenomenon of violent attacks on Palestinian civilians
“The fact that this systemic failure has continued for at least two decades evinces that the State of Israel normalizes and supports ideologically motivated violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank as a matter of policy and benefits from its effects,” the organization stated.
The organization said that the data from these cases nevertheless constituted “a singular, broad, cumulative sample” that enabled an analysis of how the Israel Police responds to ideologically motivated crime by Israelis in the West Bank.
Of the 1,664 cases monitored by Yesh Din, 670, or 40.3%, involved violent offenses perpetrated by Israeli civilians against Palestinians such as homicide, assault, use of firearms, stone-throwing, threats, and the killing or harming of animals; 772, or 46.4%, concerned property offenses such as setting homes, mosques and cars on fire, theft, cutting down trees, harming crops, vandalizing property and spraying graffiti; and 222 cases, or 13.3%, concerned incidents in which Israelis attempted to take over Palestinian land, for instance by fencing off land, erecting structures or blocking access.
Of the 1,664 police investigations Yesh Din monitored, 1,615 have been concluded. Of those, 1,513 were closed without an indictment, amounting to 93.7% of cases tracked.
In just 107 cases, or 6.6%, were indictments filed. (The discrepancy of 0.3% reflects cases that were closed by police but reopened due to an appeal by Yesh Din, and then ended in an indictment.)
Critically, some 84% of police investigations were closed because of police failures. Of the 1,437 cases in which police provided Yesh Din with the reasons why the case was closed, 921, or 64%, were closed on the grounds of “offender unknown” — that is, police determined a crime had been committed but could not identify the culprit.
In another 290 cases, or 20%, the investigation was closed without an indictment due to “insufficient evidence” — meaning police determined a crime had been committed but failed to amass the necessary evidence to prosecute the culprit.
Another 162 investigations, or 11.5%, were closed because police concluded either that no criminal offense had been committed or that the offense did not meet the bar for prosecution, and another 64 investigations, or 4.5%, were closed for various other reasons.
Of the 107 indictments filed against Israelis for attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank between 2005 and September 2023, 50 ended with some form of conviction — some 3 percent of the total police investigations monitored.
“The high rate of failure points to a longstanding systemic and deliberate failure in law enforcement responses to ideologically motivated crime against Palestinians in the West Bank,” said Yesh Din.
“An analysis of data collected by Yesh Din over 19 years proves that the Israeli law enforcement system is failing in its duty to protect Palestinians from violence [committed by Israelis.
“This failure is reflected throughout the entire chain of dealing with ideological crimes by Israeli citizens against Palestinians in the West Bank: ineffective prevention, failed police investigations, a low rate of indictments and lenient punishment for convicted criminals.
“The fact that the systemic failure has continued for at least two decades indicates that this is a deliberate policy of the State of Israel, which normalizes the ideological violence of settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, supports it and benefits from its results.”
LINK: https://www.timesofisrael.com/ngo-says-only-6-of-police-probes-of-settler-violence-it-was-party-to-ended-in-charge
